Divine Intervention
by NotYourAverageSchoolgirl
Summary: An update after ages! I solemnly swear that I will update over Christmas break. It's up to you guys which story I update for sure, so please email me with your votes! Divine Intervention, A Lesson in Humility, or The Fine Art of Failing? Pick one PLEASE.
1. It All Began with a Teacup

**Here is the beginning of my new story, so I hope ya'll enjoy! **

**Thank you to all of you who reviewed my last story, "Summer at the Burrow". It was much appreciated! **

**Special thanks to Leoking- for your super long review, which I absolutely loved, and to Click La Magnifique for translating my story into French. You are both _too_ cool. **

**Well, this one goes out to all you Ron/Hermione lovers! **

If someone had told her that she'd one day come back here again, and willingly at that, she would've recommended said person to St. Mungo's in a heartbeat. Or at the very least, she would've rolled her eyes and flounced away, not even bothering to say how ridiculous that was.

Actually, she had a tendency to do that a lot.

But never mind that, because the fact was, she had been wrong.

And she hated it, absolutely hated the fact that right now, she, Hermione Granger, who believed in reason above all things, was heading for loony Trelawney, oh wait, I'm sorry, Professor Trelawney's room.

Oh yes, she could just imagine the looks on Harry and Ron's faces if they found out.

Goodness, they'd never let her forget it.

Especially Ron.

That prat would probably still be making jokes about it fifty years from now. She could imagine it, both of them toothless and wrinkled, sitting in the Great Hall for their school reunion. And Ron would turn over and whack the table delightedly with his walking stick, chortling as he poked fun at her. "Do you remember how you actually started believing in that Divination nonsense during sixth year and you went to talk to Trelawney? Huh, 'Mione? Huh?"

Oh, that was a horrifying thought.

She blamed it all on her curiosity.

Really, it was only because she was curious that she was able to excel in school, and also go on those preposterously dangerous adventures with Harry and Ron. Not that she didn't love those adventures, mind you. But this time, her curiosity hadn't been a good thing.

Earlier that day, she had been sitting in the Common Room, perusing through her Charms book, which was really not an unusual event. Parvati and Lavender, nearby, had been chattering away happily, which was also not unusual.

"You know, class today was absolutely wonderful!" Lavender gushed.

"I know! I always look forward to seeing what Professor Trelawney has to say. She's really got a gift," Parvati agreed, sounding awestruck.

Hermione resisted the urge to roll her eyes and stared pointedly at her book, trying to ignore the present conversation.

"Yeah, she really does make some brilliant predictions, doesn't she?"

"Like a few weeks back," Parvati shared eagerly, "She predicted that my grandmother was going to fall off our roof and land on our lawn ornaments and break her hip for the third time."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. Trelawney had predicted all of that?

Lavender seemed to be thinking along the same lines. "Really?" she asked, awed. "She really said that?"

"Well," Parvati explained, "She actually told me that misfortune was going to befall my family, but that's obviously what she was referring. Pretty amazing, don't you think?"

Must not bang head against table in frustration...

Hermione groaned. Really, she had expected more from those two!

She purposely turned back to her book, sighing as she realized that she had been reading the same sentence over and over again for the past five minutes.

"...Anyway, did you hear what she said about Hermione?"

And here, she could not help but notice the furtive glances that the two girls sent in her direction. She purposely avoided eye contact, opting instead to flip the page casually, even though she hadn't read through the previous page yet.

Although she'd never admit it, she was secretly waiting for them to say exactly what that old bat had said about her. Parvati and Lavender were talkative girls, she reasoned. Sooner or later they'd burst out with that little tidbit of information, and then she could go back to work.

But much to her dismay, it happened to be the one time the two had ever stopped chattering in the six years since she had met them. Rather than continuing with the conversation, they lapsed into a thoughtful silence and turned back to their Divination homework, scribbling out charts of planet alignment or some nonsense of the sort.

Huffing, she had turned back to her book, her thoughts, for some reason, drifting to a certain bug-eyed professor. She inwardly cursed (something that she would never dare do in public; imagine what it could do to tarnish her reputation!).

And so, because she was insanely curious as to what exactly that lunatic who was, as she liked to put it, "a few bites short of a poptart" knew about her, she had abruptly stood up and strode out of the Common Room and into the hallway, unfortunately leaving just before Parvati said, without her there to hear, "Yeah, what she said about Hermione's hair being the product of evil spririts makes sense, I suppose, because you see..." and they returned to their planetary charts.

...Now here she was, standing outside of Trelawney's classroom, knocking tentatively on the door.

For a moment, she seriously considered just turning back and returning to her Charms book, which was a far safer thing to do.

But she didn't get the chance to do so, because at that moment, Trelawney softly called from within. "Please, do come in."

"Hi," Hermione greeted her former teacher rather awkwardly as she stepped inside, standing at the fringe of the room biting her lip nervously.

Trelawney looked up serenely from a pile of cushions, where she had obviously been napping previously. Completely oblivious to her rumpled hair and glasses askew, she smiled, nodding knowingly. "Ah, I knew you would come."

Hermione snorted, immediately regretting having come up here. To think, she had actually believed the possibility that this woman could know something about her! How absolutely ridiculous she had been.

Before she could open her mouth to mumble a quick, "Never mind," Trelawney had rushed to her side (surprisingly quick for a woman whose goal in life was to appear as if she floated on air) and grabbed her arm, much to Hermione's distress.

"My dear," the woman said urgently, guiding her towards a nearby table, "There are things in your life that must be explained to you." And with that, she closed her eyes and began mumbling words that Hermione could barely catch. She distinctly heard the words, "peanut butter and frog," but she couldn't be too sure.

"My dear," Trelawney opened her eyes and solemnly stared at her, "I know what you came here for."

Hermione raised a skeptical eyebrow. "You do?"

Nodding fervently, Trelawney rose, brushing her long, delicate fingers against a row of dusty teacups lined up on a shelf. Pausing for a moment, she grabbed a green one (apparently, she had bought new ones) and brought it over to Hermione.

"These tea leaves hold the answers to your," she paused dramatically, taking in a deep breath, "Dilemma."

Resisting the urge to bang her head on the table and wail, "Why, why, why did I put myself through this?!", Hermione sighed in resignation and decided to humor the woman. "And what," she inquired, forcing an interested expression, "Would that dilemma be?"

Trelawney's eyes sparkled in joy as she waved her hands over the teacup, closing her eyes for effect. She even began humming in the way that witch doctors did in those cheesy low-budget Muggle horror movies.

Hermione didn't know whether to be horrified or amused. So she opted just to sit patiently and wait for Trelawney to finish her, erm, impressive display of talents.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity (or at least the period of time it took to write four extra credit essays, which she could've been doing during this time!), Trelawney opened her eyes and drew a deep shuddering breath.

Or at least it would have been had Trelawney not suffered from a sudden coughing fit.

Watching Trelawney hack and cough violently, her eyes popping out even more than usual was, although she'd never admit it, one of the most satisfying moments of Hermione's life. In fact, she could barely stop the corners of her mouth from twitching upwards in glee. "Are you alright, Professor?" she asked, trying her best to sound genuinely concerned.

Nodding, the woman straightened up as she tried to salvage what little dignity she had left. "Why yes," she replied, giving Hermione a reassuring smile, "I certainly foresaw that."

Hermione was unconvinced, but she decided not to mention it. Instead, she frowned slightly, asking rather callously, "So what was my big dilemma again?"

Trelawney blinked, looking a bit disoriented. "Oh, right," she said, losing her airy tone for a moment. But she resumed it after a moment to say; "You are obviously searching, searching, searching, searching and searching desperately... for love!"

And here it was Hermione's turn to cough violently. "What?" she asked, unable to keep the incredulity out of her voice, "You're not actually serious, are you?"

"I am indeed serious," Trelawney replied, a hint of annoyance in her tone, "You came here seeking my aid."

"I-" Hermione opened her mouth, fully intending on protesting vehemently, but closed it again and simply turned around, clearly frustrated. "You know," she muttered, disappointed that she had ever decided to waste her time by going back to this classroom, "I think I'm going to leave."

She was halfway to the door when a thin, bony hand shot out of nowhere and grabbed her shoulder. Yelping, she turned around to look into the abnormally large eyes of Trelawney.

For such a fragile looking woman, she sure had a strong grip.

"You cannot leave," the woman insisted urgently, "Not until you hear of what your future holds!"

Tensing as she was guided back to the table, Hermione couldn't help but feel as if the old bat was trying to hold her captive. Imagine, being kidnapped and stored away in a room filled with multi-colored teacups and crystal balls. She couldn't help but snort at the thought.

Trelawney shoved Hermione back down into her seat and sat down across from her, now gripping her wrist. "Now what did you want to know again, my dear?"

"I wanted to leave," Hermione reminded her, trying ineffectively to free her wrist, "So if you'll excuse me..."

But apparently, having already let this particular student slip through her fingers once, Trelawney was not willing to let Hermione go again. Instead, she tightened her grip on the girl's wrist, leaning across the table and gazing at her solemnly. "Your love life, my dear, your love life!" she whispered, her tone urgent.

Hermione rolled her eyes. Apparently, this was how the loony old woman convinced students of her "powers", and quite honestly, Hermione was unimpressed. In fact, she couldn't really care less what Trelawney had to say. "Yes," she sighed, slumping her shoulders in a bored fashion, "And what do you have to say about my love life?"

The corners of Trelawney's mouth turned downwards in a frown as the girl before her sighed again in boredom. She couldn't possibly understand how the girl could still be so, so disbelieving after all of this! Well, that mattered very little. Soon, Trelawney vowed, soon the girl would believe. This, after all, was her big chance! The ideal time to prove to the girl that seeing the future was indeed possible!

So rather than give up, Trelawney continued with greater vigor.

"YOU!" she shouted, standing up excitedly, pointing a quivering finger at a very surprised Hermione. "You will fall in love soon! Yes, you will!"

"Umm," Hermione stared at the woman, standing before her with a maniacal grin on her face. She quickly decided that it would be best not to agitate the woman any further, as one could never predict what that insane bat could do. "Alright then. If you say so, Professor."

_She believes! She believes! She believes!_

Trelawney was ecstatic, to say the least. Her most difficult student of all time was finally on the verge of crossing over into the world of Divination lovers! She could push this girl through; she could help her to embrace the fine art!

"Yes!" she continued, shaking from excitement. "Yes! You will fall in love with one near to you!"

Hermione nodded, trying to look earnest.

"Why yes, Professor," she assured the woman, who was now... vibrating? How bizarre. "Continue. Tell me exactly who I'll fall in love with."

Of course, being the rational girl that she was, Hermione just knew that this was the way to get out quickly. She would humor the woman, agree with everything she said, and in no time, crazy Trelawney would be satisfied, and she, Hermione, could waltz on out of there, unscathed.

The plan was, as always, absolutely flawless.

That is, until Trelawney opened her stupid mouth and replied.

With a thoughtful look, she peered at Hermione's face and said, quite coolly, "Why that Weasley boy, of course."

Today, Trelawney wasn't feeling particularly receptive to the powers that gave her the answers to the future, so, though she would never admit this, she guessed. And, she thought, she was a pretty darn good guesser.

In a second, Hermione's perfect plan went out the window as she gawked at Trelawney, blushing furiously. "What?" she squeaked, turning an even deeper shade of crimson. "No, I mean, oh, you're obviously wrong. You have no idea what you're talking about," she stood up abruptly, looking around wildly, "I really have to leave now. But you were wrong. You were, yes you were." And so she continued mumbling to herself as she hurriedly walked out the classroom.

Trelawney frowned as she watched the girl leave. "Well," she huffed to herself, a bit offended by the girl's reaction. "Just because I was wrong, she didn't need to have such a fit."


	2. Doubted Sanity

**My darling reviewers- for a while there, this strange, strange website told me that this story had 0 reviews. Can you imagine my distress as I sat there, perplexed as I wondered how _insane_ I was, reading imaginary reviews?**

**... Just kidding of course. **

**I know I'm not crazy. Hah. Right. **

**Anyway, thank you much for reviewing the first chapter. It was loads of fun- loads and _loads_** **of fun!- writing this second chapter because well, a panicked Hermione makes for fun writing. **

**Anywhoo, many thanks to: Eirauqcam Suraseht, blank-cd, viper676, airhead14, rain12, Concealed, Chantal J, cherry blossom08, Brown Pryde, cherri88, kaylyn, and pumpkinpiebaby for your encouraging reviews! **

**Emily T- Thanks so much! I'm trying really hard to accurately portray Hermione, and I'm honored that you think I did it right. Anyways, I agree. Trelawney, though batty, is a wonderfully hilarious character, bless her soul. Here's the next chapter- hope you enjoy!**

**Tru Lys- Hi there! Well, I'm sorry I didn't mention you... but I must say that you _are _one of my fave reviewers! Thanks for following me over to this story, and I hope you like it!**

**Poky- Haha, I sooo agree with you. I actually think Trelawney actually hit it right on the mark with her prediction about poor Hermione's love life. Anyway, in this chapter, things get worse for our main character. Thanks for reviewing, and I hope you like it!**

**Yoman- Wow, I have never ever heard the word "unethical" used to threaten authors into updating. You're an interesting one, lol. Anyway, to ease your suspense a bit, I've got, ta da, chapter 2! So here you go, and thank you so much for reviewing!**

**Tweek's Panda- Yay! It's you again! Another familiar reviewer (sniffles)! I'm glad you followed me over to this story. Anyway, thank you much for reviewing, and hope you like this! **

**Death Immortalitis- Thank you for your flattering review; I'm glad you think everyone is in character! Oh and no, you'll be happy to hear that this is going to be pretty darn long, and that, voila, here is the second chapter! Hope you enjoy!**

**By the way, I accidentally deleted one (or two?) of the review emails, and now that the site won't let me access the reviews, I CAN'T REPLY TO THEM. I'm sad, very very very sad. So many apologies to whoever that was- your review was much appreciated and I hope you forgive me for my silly mistake... **

**Hooray for chapter two! Now read, and if you like what you see, REVIEW. Please? **

_She knows! How could she ever know? That Divination business... no, it couldn't be! That was absurd! _

_Or... was it?_

"Hermione?"

Her head snapped up as Harry's voice broke her out of her stupor.

"Huh?" she asked, blushing as she realized that for once, she hadn't been paying attention in class. She guiltily turned her head in Professor Flitwick's direction, relieved when she found that his attentions where turned elsewhere.

Harry gave her a strange look.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah," she lied, picking up her quill to dutifully take notes, "I'm just a little tired. I was up for a while writing that horrid Potions essay last night, you know."

"Oh, alright then."

He too turned back to the lecture at hand, scribbling down words here and there, his notes much messier than hers. For a moment, she had the urge to lean over and chide him for his disorganized scrawls, but simply turned back to her neater notes and continued writing.

_Oh well, if he needs the notes later on, he'll just ask me anyway._

The rest of the class period passed uneventfully, with the only strange occurrence being a very distracted Hermione. Harry, for one, was unconvinced that she was "just a little tired"; after all, he had seen her in class before after having had absolutely no sleep, and she had always been attentive as always. And besides, it appeared as if she was mumbling things to herself, her forehead furrowed in worry, or something of the sort. That alone suggested that something was amiss.

He watched her for a moment, trying to catch what she was mumbling under her breath. All he heard was, "No, no, no, so wrong..." and he wondered what she could possibly be thinking about.

Millicent Bulstrode in a thong?

He shuddered, shutting his eyes in an attempt to rid himself of the disgusting mental image. Well that definitely fit the description of "so wrong."

After class was dismissed, the three friends (Ron had been napping during class, and for once, Hermione hadn't noticed) walked out together as usual. Ron was chattering away about how bloody hungry he was, and Harry was observing Hermione's strange behavior.

She, at the moment, was completely oblivious to Ron's one-sided conversation and was, instead, staring off absentmindedly.

"Hey," Ron suddenly remarked, noticing that neither of his friends were paying attention to him at all, "What's wrong 'Mione?"

She started and jumped away from him, noticing for the first time since she'd left the classroom that he was standing right next to her. "Oh, you," she stammered out, blushing slightly, "I'm fine; I'm just a little tired, you know." She nodded, as if trying to convince herself, "Yes, just tired," and wandered off down the hallway by herself, leaving her two friends behind.

Ron stared after her, confused at her reply. "Mate," he said, turning to Harry, "I don't think she's tired."

Harry ran a hand through his hair, equally bewildered. "Me neither," he muttered, "It's definitely something more."

Hermione, at the present time, was weaving through the throngs of students mulling about in the hallway. She took in a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "She doesn't know anything," she whispered to herself, "And besides, it's not really true."

Her conscious, dratted thing, kicked in at that moment.

"What do you mean, not true?" the voice in her head protested indignantly. "When you're not studying, you're staring at Ron! When you're not staring at him, you're thinking about him! You, silly girl, are absolutely madly infatuated with your best friend."

"No I'm not!" Hermione hissed angrily, earning a few odd looks from the students nearby. "I'm not," she said again, her voice uncertain as she tried to convince herself. "I'm not."  
  
She jumped again when a hand reached out and touched her shoulder.

For a split second, she had the image of a long, bony hand rested on her shoulder, dragging her over to the teacups from hell... but that image disappeared the moment she heard Ron's worried voice. "Hey, Hermione?" he asked, concern etched on his face. "Are you alright? You're, err... talking to yourself."

She turned around slowly to face both Ron and Harry who were staring at her with odd looks.

"Hi," she squeaked, purposely avoiding Ron's face. "Where'd you guys come from?"

"Well," Harry explained slowly, "We were walking out of class together and suddenly you darted off. What were you talking about, anyway? You're not what?"

"Just," she struggled for an answer, finally shrugging, "I thought I heard someone talking to me."

The boys looked around and she followed their gazes, weakly smiling when she realized that absolutely no one was within ten feet of her.

"I-" she began to explain about her inner voice, that it kicked in all the time and told her ridiculous things and even had debates and spats with her, but Harry cut her off, placing a hand on her shoulder reassuringly.

"Hermione," he told her gently, "Look, we understand. All this schoolwork and stress, maybe it's too much for you. I mean, maybe it's getting to you and you're, err..." he floundered for a moment.

"-Being delusional!" Ron piped in helpfully. "It's alright Hermione, you just need to relax a bit and get your mind back together."

Both boys looked at her expectantly, patient understanding looks on their faces.

Hermione's eyes widened as she realized- _They thought she was crazy_!

_They were looking at her like she was some kind of a, a, frazzled mental case! _

_Like she needed to be treated with care because she would snap any moment!_

"I'm not crazy!" she burst out, absolutely horrified.

Ron looked at her nervously, inching away as she looked at him and Harry wildly.

Harry tried again. "We're not saying you are," he soothed, patting her shoulder cautiously. "We're just saying that maybe you're a little too stressed and well... come on Hermione, you have to admit that talking to yourself isn't normal."

She protested weakly, "No guys-"

But once again she was cut off as Ron grabbed her hand and led her upstairs (despite her protests), saying, "Come on, 'Mione. We're taking you upstairs to rest for a bit. Don't worry," he added hastily, "We'll bring up dinner for you as well."

And so, with her friends leaving her no other option, Hermione was gently pushed into a chair and commanded (by a very solemn Harry and Ron, at that!) to stay seated.

"I'm fine!" she insisted, to no avail.

The boys just gave her dubious looks and turned to look at each other.

"Should we leave her by herself?" Harry hissed at Ron, shooting Hermione a worried glance.

"I dunno," Ron replied uncertainly, scratching his head, "Who knows what she might do in this... state of hers."

Hermione jumped up to protest, but they gave her frightened looks and shoved her back into the chair.

"Stay," Harry commanded, giving her a stern look.

Despite her distress, Hermione couldn't help but burst into giggles. _For god's sake, they were treating her like she was some kind of a, a lapdog or something!_

Ron and Harry exchanged alarmed looks as their friend, normally so calm and rational began laughing hysterically.

"You know," Ron volunteered, watching Hermione's hysterics, "Maybe I should watch her while you go get some food. You know, make sure she doesn't hurt herself or anyone else."

Harry nodded, relieved. "Yeah," he agreed, turning to leave. "That'd be great. Make sure she stays seated and... yeah, I'll be right back."

He scampered away, leaving a confused (and quite frankly, very frightened) Ron to tend a frustrated Hermione.

Having already established that she was not to be let out of the chair, Hermione sat, slumped in the chair, arms crossed as she pouted.

... And sighed and pouted and sighed.

She glanced sideways at Ron in between sighs to see if he had noticed her suffering, but he was sitting on the ground, gazing around the room indifferently.

She tried again, sighing louder this time and leant back, putting on her best damsel-in-distress face. True, she would've never thought she'd sink to this level, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and in Hermione's opinion, this was one of the worst situations she had ever been in.

_For god's sake, her friends thought she was insane and were intent on putting her under house arrest! _

_R__idiculous. Absolutely ridiculous._

She'd have to do something about it, and at the moment, this was all she could think of. So she continued with her loud sighs and hoped that she could possibly win some pity from the redheaded boy sitting nearby.

Predictably, Ron looked up at her and gave her a concerned glance. "Alright there, 'Mione?" he asked gently, as if dealing with a dangerous animal.

Which, Hermione had to admit, he probably was.

_A wild, dangerously charming, madly daring feline! _

Or at least that's what she wanted to seem like.

_Oh well._

She put on a pained expression and sighed again. "Ron," she pleaded, "Why are you doing this to me? Just let me go; I'm fine."

But unfortunately for her, Ron was not so easily swayed.

"No Hermione," he told her firmly, gulping as she glared at him furiously, "You'll, you'll go crazy and get yourself in trouble."

Apparently, this was definitely not the reply she had wanted to hear.

"I told you before," she said through gritted teeth, her voice dangerously low, "I am not crazy."

Ron, however, failed to heed the warning in her voice and simply gave her a dubious look. "I don't know, 'Mione," he replied gently, "You've got to admit, talking to yourself is a bit, erm, abnormal."

Harry, coming back with three plates heaped with food paused outside the portrait of the Fat Lady as he heard a shrill shriek of rage from within.

For a moment, he considered just walking away- an enraged Hermione was far scarier than Voldemort!- but remembered that poor Ron was still inside and bravely muttered the password, walking into the Common Room.

The sight before him made him blink, unsure of whether to be very, very afraid, or start laughing hysterically.

Hermione stood atop the sofa, brandishing her knitting needles menacingly with a wide eyed, cornered animal look on her face.

Ron lay on the floor and seemed frightened to death. Around him were scattered odd objects: quills, pillows, even a couple of Hermione's treasured books. Apparently, she had become very frustrated and decided to throw things at Ron's head.

"STOP TRYING TO CONTROL MY LIFE!" she bellowed, ignoring Ron's frightened whimpers. "I CONTROL MY LIFE! NOT YOU IDIOTS- AND DEFINITELY NOT SOME STUPID MAGICAL FORCES OF THE UNIVERSE!"

_Forces of the universe? What in the world was the girl talking about?_

Harry looked around the room and grimaced as he noted that all the students had either fled or were pressed against the walls, watching Hermione abuse Ron with fear and awe.

He caught Neville's eye and noticed that the boy was clutching his hand as if in pain and winced. From the frightened looks that the boy shot at Hermione, he had obviously tried to help Ron and well, suffered the consequences.

Taking a deep breath, Harry stepped cautiously towards his friends and gently talked to Hermione. "Hi Hermione," he murmured, "I brought you food. You do want to eat, don't you?"

She looked at the plates of enticing food (or so he thought) and gave him a withering glare. "Don't think," she replied scathingly, "That you can tempt me with food like I'm some sort of stupid animal, Harry."

She turned back to Ron and waved the knitting needle again, much to his dismay, and Ron's horror as well.

He tried a different approach. "Hey," he coaxed. "Hey, once you're well fed and well rested, you should be okay, right?"

She looked at him suspiciously, protesting, "But I'm okay now!"

"Yeah, well," he chuckled, watching as her frown deepened and Ron's frightened expression intensified, "You're a little stressed out, alright? Just eat something, sleep a bit, and take a break from the homework for once. We're not," he assured her, "trying to control you or keep you locked up. We're just looking out for you."

Her expression softened at his earnest expression. Despite the fact that they were terribly wrong, and putting her through one of the most humiliating experiences of her life as well, the fact that they were "looking out" for her still touched her.

On seeing her pause in contemplation, lowering her knitting needles, Harry jumped in, grabbing at her from behind.

Immediately understanding, Ron scrambled up and grabbed the knitting needles from her flailing hands, placing them behind his back and far, far away from her.

"No!" she struggled, feeling at the moment terribly betrayed.

She couldn't believe it- _Harry had purposely appealed to her emotions in order to, to, to ambush her!_

"Whoa..."

Both boys tried desperately to soothe her, to stop her wild flailing of arms.

It really didn't help matters any that from all corners of the room, formerly frightened Gryffindors were cheering excitedly, shouting choruses of, "Go Harry!" or, "Go Weasley!" and from the very brave, "Get that crazy girl!"

Hermione sniffled and stopped struggling, obediently sitting down as Harry and Ron pushed her back into the chair.  
  
_They were all against her! All of them... They actually thought she was crazy! _

_The idea was preposterous, of course. _

_She was rational, academia-focused Hermione! Hermione whom they came to for help with essays! _

_And that whole image had been shattered by one bad day. _

_One day!_

... She had never hated Trelawney more.

"Hey," Ron's tentative voice broke into her thoughts and she turned quickly to look into his concerned eyes, "It's alright, 'Mione. We all have bad days."

_Oh, believe me, buddy, some worse than others._

She sniffled again, rubbing at her eyes angrily.

God, but she hated it when she got emotional!

"Why's she crying?" Harry hissed, alarmed.

Ron shrugged helplessly, "I don't know! I don't know how to deal with her!"

"Oy," Harry sighed, rubbing his temples as if his head hurt, "Females..."

She stiffened, feeling insulted. "Hey!" she objected, her self-pity forgotten. "I could certainly say the same for you males, you know."

And those two, believe it or not, actually had the nerve to smile back at her!

"Oh you two," she snapped, feeling even more irritated, if that were possible, "What's so funny?"

Harry and Ron exchanged grins once again.

"It's just," Harry explained, giving her a look that she could only decipher as... _fond?_ "It's strange how even when you're stressed out and slightly hysterical, when you lecture, you still sound exactly like, well, Hermione."

She stared at him for a moment, and then glared at them both furiously.

"I AM NOT HYSTERICAL!"

"Oh boy," Ron groaned, rolling his eyes. "Here we go again."


	3. A Return to Normalcy

**Hooray! I love my cousins... anyway, my cousin Victor Vu has gotten us tickets to the invitation only premiere of his new movie! He's an independent screenwriter/director/producer, and I'm incredibly jealous of him, lol. But this is exciting stuff! Check out his movies if they come to your town- they're not bad... (Actually I've only seen one, but it was good! I promise!) And also, my cousin Connie's getting married and I just went to get measured for a new ao dai. Fun stuff, the seamstress should have it done in two weeks. So right now, I'm a pretty darn happy person.**

**Anyway, I love all of you who review dearly. So I shall blow kisses to: cherryblossom08, brownpryde, Chantal J, JessyNick, airhead14, blank-cd, AmyChris, Tweek's Panda and squidward for your wonderful reviews! MUAH. **

**Emily T- Why thank you for your review! I loved the hysterics too... rather reminded me of myself. Lol, kidding, but in all seriousness, I had fun reading your review. Although it does make me wonder why you know so well how one bad day can tarnish a great reputation (raises eyebrow suspiciously). Kidding of course!**

**Poky- I'm so glad I made you laugh- humor isn't exactly my strongpoint, but I'm certainly trying (and hopefully succeeding!). Anyway, I will assure you that _yes_ Ron and Hermione will end up together because I wouldn't have it any other way in this fic. That would just be... not right. **

**JamieBell- Yay! Hi you! Thanks for reviewing- and I hope you like it! Yes, Hermione snapped. A shame really. But in this chapter, she's back. Kind of. Things might get psycho again later, but for now, she's under the impression that she's got it all figured out. Aww and look, you reviewed my new story! (Tears up) Thank you so much! And by the way, you really helped me with my writing when I was starting up, so I owe it all to you. Oh dear, I sound sappy and stupid. Ah well... you are much appreciated and I hope you enjoy reading my stuff. Oh yes, and I enjoy reading _your_ stuff too. Yes, that was a hint, lol. **

**Tru Lys- Lol, you talk to yourself? I only do so occasionally- when I'm alone. Or stressed out (which is why Harry suddenly assumes that Hermione's stressed). Anyways, I'm sorry I didn't wake up your sister... I'm actually having issues making this fic as funny as "Summer at the Burrow" (although, if you ask me, "Summer at the Burrow" was only my sad attempt to be funny). And of course, when Hermione calls the Potions essay "horrid", it is atypical for her, but remember, she's not really thinking straight. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this, and thanks for your review!**

**Kingmaker- YAAY. You've found your way over to my new story! Anyhow, first, thank you for your review for "Summer at the Burrow", it made me smile. Although the double entendres thing... I actually did read it again, and tsk tsk, that's _dirty_. Haha, and thank you for your review here- I'm glad you're liking my potrayal of the characters. Here is the next chapter, and I hope you enjoy! **

**Death Immortalitis- Ah! Thank you so much for loving my story... you are too cool! Although I would never say that I write like JKR, actually I was quite frightened when you said that. That's a huge insult to JKR! Lol, but I'm extremely flattered anyway! And I'm glad you liked it; I love the hysterical Hermione too! Alright, so here's the next chapter, and I hope you like it! **

**Oh and I want to know where in the world Leoking has gone to! _Come back!!!_ You are missed! Anyways, proceed and read, and hopefully review! **

Hermione was, in one word, furious.

How could those two, her best friends in the world, be this distrusting of her? Didn't they accept her reasoning? Didn't they love her enough to end her suffering?

Ugh.

Even thinking of the word 'love' sent shivers down her back as her mind wandered back to a classroom filled with the sickeningly sweet scent of aromatic candles, crystal balls placed on the tables, teacups stacked on the shelves...

She shuddered.

No, not the nightmare about the evil, matchmaking teacups again! Anything but that!

It was all the fault of that evil woman.

Hermione was beginning to suspect that Trelawney was more perceptive than she seemed, that she had seen Hermione's fleeting (albeit secretive) glances at Ron and was using this against her! Yes, the woman had wanted to make her life miserable ever since she'd stormed out of her classroom. Hermione was sure of it.

But even as she fumed on and on about the evils of her friends, the evils of her former professor, and the evils of pastel teacups, she couldn't help but smile a bit as she looked at the red headed boy, asleep on the chair beside hers.

He had insisted on her sleeping in the Common Room that night (he and Harry had even dragged down piles of bedding from the dormitories to make her a comfortable bed on the long sofa) with him there to "guard" her. Although she suspected that he was only there to stop her from doing anything rash and dangerous, she couldn't help but find the gesture endearing.

The way his hair was adorably rumpled, the way he sighed happily and snuggled deeper into his blankets as he dreamt away...

Oh boy.

That was definitely the drowsiness talking.

She shut her eyes, willing herself to stop thinking about him.

She could be calm; she could be rational. She would not give into the raging hormones of the teenage years!

It was just, like Harry said, all that stress.

She didn't really like to stare at Ron while he slept, a silly smile on her face. Really!

She groaned, burying her face in a pillow. This was ridiculous. She really needed some sleep.

And with that in mind, Hermione kept her eyes resolutely shut (no peeking at her best friend!) until she fell asleep.

_Teacups... _

_Must get away... _

_"You will fall in loooooove... with that Weasley boy!" _

_No, not Ron. She doesn't know about Ron! _

_...A bony hand with long fingers, reaching out for her wrist..._

"Hermione? Hermione?" She was gently shaken awake, and when she opened her eyes, she found herself looking up into Ron's worried face.

Just a nightmare...

"Are you alright?" he asked, helping her to sit up. "You were whimpering, and mumbling something about me..." he looked at her imploringly, confusion apparent on his face. "Were you having a nightmare about me or something?"

She felt her mouth go dry, and she blushed furiously.

But Ron's baffled expression reassured her that, no, he hadn't heard the part of the dream where, erm, Trelawney made her little prediction.

"Yeah," she lied, trying to keep a straight face. "I was having a dream where you were attacked by lawn gnomes and they dragged you into the bushes and tied you up and giant spiders came and fed on your flesh."

She almost regretted having said that when she saw his horrified expression.

"Ugh!" He shuddered, rubbing at his shoulders even though it was quite warm inside.

"But," she added guiltily, "I'm really very glad that you're alright and alive."

He nodded distractedly, giant flesh-eating spiders apparently still on his mind.

Oh well.

At least he hadn't guessed the truth.

That would have been an even more horrid experience than the day before, and the day before had been absolutely terrible for her.

He was still looking a bit pale and traumatized when Harry came in, yawning, and his perpetually messy hair even messier than usual.

"Hi guys," he mumbled sleepily, smiling when he saw that Hermione was calm and contemplative. "Feeling better?"

Hermione nodded and smiled at him in return, but Ron shook his head nervously.

"No..." he muttered, giving Harry a sheepish grin. "I just started thinking about giant spiders again."

Harry nodded sympathetically, accustomed to dealing with his friend's fear by now.

Turning to Hermione, he asked, "So, you're definitely alright today?"

Resisting the urge to snap back at him, she smiled, nodding sweetly. "Yeah, I'm feeling a lot better. I'm glad," she said, lying through her teeth, "That you two made me calm down. I feel a lot less stressed, and I know yesterday I was a bit hysterical. But I'm definitely okay now!"

Both boys grinned happily, their plan having worked perfectly.

"That's great, 'Mione!" Ron said enthusiastically, the giant spiders forgotten.

She smiled back at them, genuinely this time because they obviously thought that she had returned to normal. And because of this, she refrained from telling Harry all about her nightmare over breakfast.

Instead, when Ron briefly mentioned her distress during the night, she simply laughed it off, repeating the same giant spider story she had used with Ron that morning.

He's so predictable, she thought fondly as she watched Ron pale at the mere mention of spiders.

Wait... had she just thought of Ron fondly?

... Well couldn't she think of him fondly and still only have purely platonic feelings towards him?

Oh lord, but that Trelawney woman was making her so paranoid!

She shook off thoughts of Trelawney turning back to her friends and the conversation at hand, which was something about Ginny's current love interest. The girl talked animatedly, pealing with laughter as the other girls at the table teased her.

Hermione sighed.

If only she could be like that.

If only she wasn't so bloody sensitive about her love life!

She glanced around the table idly, noticing that Neville gave her quite a frightened glance, as did many of the other Gryffindors. In fact, some looked positively startled when she glanced at them, even jumping out of their seats.

Well, she'd certainly have to be on her best behavior for a while.

Don't bite anyone, she told herself rationally. Just don't pick any fights, smile at everyone, spread love and peace and everything should turn out wonderfully!

"Hey Hermione," Ginny addressed her, breaking into her thoughts. "Who do you like, hmm?"

"Yeah!" Parvati added. "You never tell us anything, Hermione. You're always so, so secretive about everything."  
  
Lavender nodded in agreement. "Hermione, we know you've got to be interested in things other than books. Namely," she added slyly, "Living, breathing, teenage males!"

Harry and Ron chuckled, exchanging amused glances as they looked over with interest to see how their female friend would respond.

Hermione blinked.

They were all out to get her.

She couldn't go anywhere without escaping the subject of her dratted love life!

Forcing a smile, she shrugged her shoulders at the girls and replied, much to their disappointment, "No one at the moment, girls. I'm really too busy to fancy anyone."

"Ugh, you!" Ginny groaned, rolling her eyes at the typical Hermione answer. "That's impossible and you know it. There's no such thing as being too busy to fancy someone. You just don't want to tell us anything."

Parvati and Lavender turned back to their breakfasts, having lost interest in the conversation.

This was balanced out, however, when Ron joined into the conversation.

"Don't worry, Gin," he chuckled, looking over at Hermione. "We're her best friends and she still doesn't tell us anything. She didn't even tell us when," and here his demeanor darkened, "She was dating Krum."

And during the awkward conversation he just had to bring up that touchy subject.

Great.

"I've told you before," she explained to him, sighing in frustration, "We weren't dating. Well," she bit her lip, "At least not really. I don't think so. Ginny, what constitutes dating?"

Ginny grinned, replying with the flourish of an expert, "Lots of mindless snogging is enough. But of course, it doesn't hurt if he asked you first."

"Hmm," Hermione pretended to look thoughtful, and snickered when she saw the horrified expressions of Ron and Harry, "I suppose it wasn't dating then because we weren't snogging mindlessly."

Ron let out a heavy sigh of relief.

"We were quite deliberate in our snogging."

Ginny burst into giggles, and even Harry had to join in with his own chuckles.

Ron, however, reddened, staring at her, mouth open in horror. "You're not," he stammered, wide-eyed. "You're not actually serious are you?"

The corners of Hermione's mouth twitched upwards, despite her attempt to keep a straight face. Finally, she burst out laughing, responding, between gasps of laughter to Ron. "No," she assured him, "Absolutely nothing happened. In fact," she stopped laughing and frowned slightly, "He was rather boring."

Ron relaxed considerably, returning to his normal color.

"Ah," Ginny nodded understandingly, remarking, "Ever girl wants a boy who'll rush in and sweep her off her feet. There's got to be some excitement involved."  
  
The boys at the table paused and looked up, obviously taking mental note of her comment. In fact, a couple younger years were even seen taking out pieces of parchment and scribbling down her remark furiously.

The bell rang shrilly, signaling five minutes until the start of the first class.

"What do we have today?" Harry asked, getting up from the table and grabbing at his book bag.

The other students in the Great Hall did likewise, abandoning their empty plates as they turned in the direction of their next class.

To no one's surprise, Hermione responded to Harry's question, shouldering her book bag as she called to both him and Ron, "Double Transfiguration today!"

Ginny jumped up from her seat, taking one last bite out of a muffin before scampering off with other students in her year, calling behind her, "Bye guys!"

Transfiguration that day, Hermione decided, passed quite pleasantly.

She had returned to her normal self, much to the relief of all the Gryffindors, Ron and Harry in particular.

Sitting up attentively in class, she had successfully transfigured a toilet seat into a sumptuous cake (not that anyone had the urge to taste it) before the rest of the class.

Neville, she had to admit, was acting quite oddly.

He had seated himself on the far side of the room and sent her frightened looks every time she so much as lifted her hand to perform a spell.

What in the world could've caused this?

She frowned in concentration as she thought back...

_ She stood over Ron, after having thrown a quill (rather like one throws a dart) that narrowly missed his head. _

_Ron had looked up at her in horror as he tried desperately to scramble away._

_Faintly, she could hear the startled gasps in the background, the hushed whispers of, "She's really lost it, hasn't she?"_

_Suddenly, out of nowhere, a boy shot out, head held high bravely as he rushed in and grabbed Ron, attempting to pull him away._

_In her rage, she grabbed a book and aimed it carefully at the boy's hand, resting on the floor. With a cry of fury, she flung it at Ron's savior, making him yelp and leap away._

... Oh.

So that had been Neville.

She turned to give him an apologetic smile and was confused when he shrunk away.

Across the room, Neville looked up to see Hermione, deranged Hermione who had attacked him yesterday, smiling at him. The malicious way the light glinted off her teeth, the secret warning that she was obviously sending him- he shivered as he realized with horror that Hermione was out to get him!

He crouched over his desk for the rest of the class period, hoping that she would forget he was there and spare his life...

And so the rest of the day passed.

True, Harry and Ron did stay close to Hermione, making sure that she didn't have one of her "fits" again, and all of the Gryffindors, for the most part, tried to stay at least several feet away from her at all times, but things were certainly looking up for Hermione.

Or so she thought.

Because just as she was leaving her last class (care of magical creatures- a lovely subject that she actually enjoyed quite a bit), a frenzied, frizzy- haired, bug-eyed woman rushed out into the middle of the hallway, crashing into her.

Oh yes.

Enter Trelawney.


	4. A Little Push in the Right Direction

**_Nine times out of ten our hearts just get dissolved._**

**_Well I just want a better place or just a better way to fall._**

**_But one time out of ten, everything is perfect for us all. _**

**- Modest Mouse**

**Geez I love that band... **

**Never fear- I'm back! Sorry for the slightly longer than usual wait- I've had a lot of things on my mind lately, and generally, when I'm stressed out or just plain feeling icky (I don't like the word "depressed" because I really don't get "depressed", I think it's more of the feeling when you've woken up and the sky is gray and you start thinking about all your faults... That feeling) I can't write. But finally I managed to write this little chapter for you guys, and I hope you like it!**

**Argh, I go back to school in ONE WEEK. Can you believe it? Before then, I must: 1. write my newspaper article (due on Friday), 2. Find the stupid book I need for summer reading which seems to disappear from bookstores everywhere, 3. Find my cousin a wedding gift (by SATURDAY), 4. Make up a packet of paperwork and suggestions for red cross work (due in a week)... and I'm sure there's more that I just can't think of. **

**But, thankfully, happy things pulled me out of my writer's block. I'm getting a new ao dai made- It's absolutely fantabulous! We're picking it up from the seamstress on Wednesday... **

**Oh and I saw my cousin's movie on Friday! GO SEE IT. I don't know what towns it's going to next, but it's called Sprits (or Oan Hon, if you want to use the Vietnamese title), and it's a ghost story. He did a fantastic job writing it and directing it, if I do say so myself. And I met all the actors at the reception! Cool stuff. My only gripe about it: I've been terrified and unable to sleep anytime before dawn for the past two nights (I kid you not). And that's even with the fact that I know where the set was built and have met all the actors. Yes, my evil cousin Victor. As a result, I'm a little tired, not to mention jumpy. But if you want to check out his movie, go to It'll be showing at Camera 12 in San Jose, CA for the next two weeks, so go check it out if you happen to live here. There's a website, but it won't let me post it up here. Grumbles... um... well lets spell it out then. WWW (dot) Spiritsthemovie (dot) com. Easy enough.**

**I****'m tempted to continue rambling on, but I know I must be boring the heck out of all of you. Let's just end this long rant with what's been bothering me after seeing the movie- IT SUCKS TO HAVE SUCH TALENTED FAMILY MEMBERS.**

**I swear. And I won't even go into detail about the other 31 cousins who are three million times more successful than I ever will be.**

**Okay! So now I will thank my reviewers and all will be well!**

**Emily T- Ahaha, we all love Trelawney, don't we? Yeah, I agree, it is a rather disturbing mental image when you think of Hermione and Krum... Ick. Anyways, glad you're liking this and I hope this chapter satisfies you as well!**

**JamieBell- Haha, you're so weird. _Really_. Anyway, I'm glad you're liking this! Here the story get's more complicated, with TRELAWNEY. Hooray for psychotic diviners! And of course, hooray for Hermione/Ron fluffiness! And hooray for Margaret, who is my super cool reviewer! Anyways, thanks for everything. Hope you like this! **

**Leoking- Gee golly, what a _long_ review! I'm excited, I really am! Haha, I loved your review; yay, I have a reviewer in shining armor! Hah to all those writers who _don't_. I'm taking your advice (or trying to) and laying off a bit on the slang. I just felt that it was appropriate for the most chaotic moments, lol. Thank you for your praise; I'm blushing, really. It's so flattering! Anyway, hope you had fun at your family party and have fun reading this!**

**Kingmaker- Haha, yes, Hermione is going a bit crazy, and adding more Trelawney just makes it all the more fun! Anyways, glad you're liking this; I love Neville too. The poor boy may suffer some more in this story; I'm still deciding on that. Anyways, here is the new chapter, and I hope you like it! (Try to read it without creating all those double entendres, okay?) **

**Poky- Lol, I love Sugarcult too! Anyways, glad you're liking this. Have fun with this chapter!**

**SnakeEyesHannah- I'm so glad you like this story! And yay, you thought it was funny! Anyways, there is more fun to be had. Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**Death Immortalis- Thanks for the formatting tip! I'll try to keep that in mind... Haha, I'm so flattered that this is your favorite R/Hr story thus far- Hope I don't disappoint you! **

**Tru Lys- Why yes, if you stopped reviewing I would indeed sink into a deep depression and sit in bed all day, emptying multiple containers of cookie dough ice cream while listening to horrid Vietnamese music. Anyways, hope you like this chapter, and I'll _try_ to wake up your sister. **

**Many thanks also to: BrownPryde, cherryblossom08, Chantal J, harryandginnyforever, Zayne, Mara152 and Tweek's Panda for your very kind reviews! Thank you so much for your support!**

**_Now_ you're allowed to read =D! **

****

****

Sibyll Trelawney looked up, dazed. She had just been running down the hall, intent on chasing down a third year student whom she was certain was possessed by evil spirits of some sort or was about to befall great misfortune and die a lonely and painful death- she wasn't sure which yet. The child (poor, misguided thing) had tried to escape her and because of her naturally benevolent nature (which she certainly prided herself on), Sibyll had chased after the boy, risking her own safety as she barreled her way through the halls without looking out for obstacles.

Namely, the students mulling about as they came out of class.

So here she found herself, sprawled out on the floor with some clumsy student's belongings scattered about, the possessed third-year sprinting off into the distance. Just as she thought this, the clumsy student lifted her head, revealing an irritated, familiar expression.

Immediately, all thoughts of the possessed third-year left her mind. The girl resembled (could it be?) that Granger girl, and it was a far more important task to make this one stubborn girl understand exactly what fate had in store for her. Evil spirits could be exorcised later.

As Professor Trelawney picked herself up, all the while mumbling excitedly under her breath, Hermione pulled herself into a sitting position, looking around in dismay at the mess created by her unexpected fall.

What kind of an inconsiderate person would just run into her like that? Hermione fumed, looking up as she opened her mouth ready to berate the rude individual.

Professor Trelawney.

Hermione froze, closing her mouth again as she stared. Of all the people Trelawney had to knock down in the hallway, it just had to be her.

Now, Hermione wasn't one to believe in mystical spirits or any nonsense of the sort, but honestly, if there was such a thing as luck, hers this week was absolutely terrible!

Perhaps she should've taken a tip from the other girls and read her horoscope in the newspaper.

She shook off that thought, quickly looking down and turning her face slightly in the hopes that the woman wouldn't recognize her. Perhaps she'd just stand up, start chasing down otherworldly creatures and all would be well again.

"Um... Hermione, you alright there?"

She dared not lift her face to answer Harry's question.

Any moment now... that bat would leave her alone.

She could hear the boys shifting nervously from foot to foot.

"Is she crying?" Ron hissed worriedly.

Despite her urge to look him in the eye and snap, "Of course not!" indignantly, Hermione kept her face turned downwards as she shook her head, hoping they'd understand. She couldn't speak- she wished she could tell them this- for fear that Trelawney would recognize her voice.

"I think she is!" Ron hissed, sounding a little panicky.

She smirked to herself. Neither of those boys really knew how to deal with what they termed as "emotional females". Really, it was rather endearing.

Harry must have whispered something back, for the next thing she knew, both boys were on their knees, picking up her scattered belongings. Ron came closer, shoving books, pieces of parchment and quills into the book bag next to her.

Apparently trying to comfort his "distraught" friend, he held out the book bag for her, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder as he soothed, "Oh it's okay, 'Mione. We've gotten everything picked up. You're not hurt are you?"

It was that anxious tone that really made her look up and give him a small smile. "I'm fine," she told him. No matter how horrid this whole situation, the boys were still so sweet! Her smile broadened as Harry shuffled over, cradling several books and quills in his arms. Ron pulled her in for a hug as he was still convinced that she had been crying (rather awkwardly- he wasn't the greatest at all this comforting business).

That hug was her undoing.

Apparently, through this whole exchange, Trelawney had been watching, trying to get a proper glimpse of the girl's face. When she turned to hug Ron, however, sudden realization dawned on the Divination professor.

The Weasley boy!

It was almost too perfect.

Here those two were together, obviously fated to spend the rest of their lives in one another's arms, and she had fallen right before them, an angel to guide them into their loving bliss. Actually, she was rather partial to that image. Sibyll Trelawney- resident guardian of all Hogwarts students in need of romantic guidance.

"Ms. Granger!" she gushed, rushing over as a shocked Hermione quickly drew away from Ron, blushing.

"Good afternoon, Professor," she managed to finally say, scooting away from a puzzled Ron as she reddened considerably.

Without further ado, Trelawney reached over and pulled- much to Hermione's mortification- both Hermione and Ron into a crushing hug, bringing the two as close together as possible.

This was, quite possibly, the strangest situation Hermione had ever found herself in. Who would've ever thought she'd be this close and cuddly with her most despised teacher ever? The mere idea would've been laughable- that is, if she hadn't been quite so mortified.

Thankfully, neither Ron nor Harry quite understood what was going on, Ron in particular. He simply gaped, wide-eyed at his professor, convinced that the woman had been so touched by an earlier homework assignment (in which he drew out the details of his grueling and extremely violent death involving three bloodthirsty hippogriffs and a fall from the North Tower) that she had come to personally thank him.

So, of course, he was quite shocked when Trelawney opened her mouth and exclaimed, while looking at Hermione, "Your beloved is here with you! Now admit your undying love to him and let him sweep you off your feet and gallop down the halls with you in his arms!"

Hermione paled, letting out a horrified squeak.

Ron's eyes widened even further as his ears turned red.

Harry started coughing violently, dropping all of Hermione's belongings onto the floor again.

And throughout all of this, Trelawney had stepped back, looking down at the two mortified students (who immediately began scooting away from each other) expectantly. She gazed down at them with an overly fond expression on her face, which invariably caused Hermione to twitch nervously.

Unfortunately for our favorite couple, before either of them could recover enough to vocally protest, Trelawney had continued with her well-meaning matchmaking attempts. "Well?" she asked impatiently, "Why don't you just snog each other silly here and now?"

The mere suggestion, as well as the fact that Trelawney had actually used the word "snog" combined to turn the mortified Hermione and Ron both very red. Hermione looked over at Ron with an outraged expression, opening and closing her mouth silently as she struggled to say something.

"Well," Trelawney sighed, observing her with an air of extreme patience, "Close enough dear, but you really have to lean in more."

If possible, the two reddened even more, both looking so shocked that they seemed on the verge of fainting.

Throughout all of this, Harry had been watching with a mixture of confusion and amusement. But at Trelawney's suggestion to the unfortunate Hermione and Ron, he began chuckling, unable to stop himself.

Immediately, two heads- one frizzy and one bright red (from the face to the hair)- whirled around, shooting him the most severe glares they could muster. Fearing for his life, (after all, Hermione had been known to turn rather violent at times- why look at her knitting needle episode from the night before!) Harry wisely shut his mouth, putting on what he hoped was a more serious expression.

"I... I..."

All eyes turned to Hermione, who sat rigid on the floor, apparently trying incredibly hard to speak.

"I don't!" She finally burst out, shaking her head frantically.

A bit of a disappointment, coming from a usually exceedingly articulate girl, but really, she was going through quite a day. Actually, if you wanted to be more specific, she was going through quite a week, and with the sudden appearance of Trelawney, it didn't look like it was going to get better anytime soon.

All eyes continued to stare at her blankly.

Oh really, did they have to be this slow?

Blushing again, Hermione sighed gratefully for the fact that the hall was clear of any other curious students. Thankfully, after the last class of the day, most cleared the halls immediately, rushing off to do more interesting things. Taking a deep breath, she tried again. "I don't, I mean, I really don't, I mean it's not true!" she sputtered. "I don't fancy Ron!"

Ron remained immobilized, still red as ever, his eyes widening slightly.

Harry raised an eyebrow dubiously, but dared not question an enraged Hermione.

Trelawney, however, wasn't as well accustomed to the girl's violent streak and therefore, found no danger in coaxing the girl further. "Come, my dear. You needn't deny what you already know in your heart," she chastised, emphasizing the word 'heart' to a sickening extent, "Why, just the other moment, you were quite close to lavishing your affections on the boy!"

Hermione fumed. The evil woman was out to trap her, she was sure of it! Why, imagine even insinuating such an untrue thing. Trelawney was undoubtedly crazy. She? Hermione Granger, trying to kiss Ronald Weasley? Absurd, absolutely absurd.

Of course, this was the moment that her inner voice decided to pipe in. "Absurd?" it chortled disbelievingly. "Don't be stupid. You know that you'd just love to place your lips over his, whispering softly your confessions of affection-"

No, no, no!

She wasn't going to listen to that darned voice- not now, not ever! Listening to it had created trouble for her previously, and obviously, if she were to listen to it now, she would most certainly-

"Snog him silly?" her inner voice finished for her in a suggestive tone.

Her inner voice had obviously read one too many tawdry romance novels, Hermione concluded. The ridiculous thing was trying to turn her life into a torrid, passionate romance and it was being assisted by an insane fraud of a diviner.

And Hermione Granger would NOT stand for any of this. Her life had been perfectly satisfactory up to this point, her reputation flawless, and her ability to reason, why, that had been her most prized characteristic. She would not let the rampant hormones of teenage hormones assault her and turn her into some make-up slathered airhead, skipping down the halls in skimpy clothing and cooing seductively after her best friend.

The mere thought was disturbing enough.

And besides, she really didn't fancy Ron at all. Not a bit. She was quite fond of him, yes, but only in that purely platonic way. Like a brother!

She made a face. No, definitely not like a brother (that was disgusting and quite disturbing), but still, just as a friend.

Or so she tried desperately to convince herself.

"Hermione," Ron's shaky voice broke into her thoughts and she turned, reddening even further. "Hermione," he continued, and he realized that he was looking at Trelawney and not at her, "Wasn't trying to, err... lavish affection on me, I don't think."

Harry let out a loud cough that sounded suspiciously like a guffaw.

Hermione managed to smile weakly at Ron, although both were beet red and found it quite hard to look at each other without going through extreme embarrassment.

At least he had sided with her.

But of course, this wasn't enough for Trelawney.

Those silly students, trying not to admit their feelings when it was so apparent! She swooped down on them again (ignoring how both of them cringed in fright) and patted their heads caringly. "My dears," she cooed to the very suspicious duo, "You are obviously meant for each other."

Hermione wrinkled her nose in annoyance. First the woman mortified her terribly, and now she was petting her like some kind of dog. How splendid.

"The stars," Trelawney continued, her voice soft and soothing, "Are perfectly aligned as to guarantee a successful match between you two."

Oh really. Not this planetary hocus-pocus again. Hermione was really tiring of this nonsense.

"And I, as a seer, know that my task is to push you two in the right direction."

Hermione began to roll her eyes, but before she could, she became very aware of the fact that Trelawney's hand had found it's way to the back of her head and was now pushing her and Ron's heads together.

As their lips met rather uncomfortably, Hermione thought back to what the woman had just said and came to an ironic realization.

The push had been literal.


	5. A Plan of Action

**My dearest reviewers... It has been forever, I know. I'm awfully sorry, but if you must know, I've been in school for the past three weeks, scraping by with less than five hours a night, and I'll probably be insane by the end of this schoolyear. People who said that junior year would be tough weren't kidding. And of course, I just have to be the stupid one who decides to pile up on honors classes that her counselor _specifically_ warned her against. Way to go me. **

**Anyway, at the risk of sounding like an absolutely whiney complainer, I'll be quiet. But I'm really sorry it's taken me so long. I actually just found a break in my homework load (well not really a break, actually I was just tired of doing it) and wrote out this chapter because I felt guilty for leaving you guys. So here it is.**

**Thank you so much to: AmyChris, BrownPryde, Tru Lys, Dianne, Vietnamaenglish, Chantal J, Dianne (you again? lol, kidding, i heart you), SaSush3, squidward, Rebekahek623, and finally, elvengirl9. What would I ever do without you guys?**

**More specific thanks:**

**Emily T- Oh gosh, I am SOO sorry about leaving you at a cliffhanger and then not updating in forever. I really am. But maybe this new chapter will make it up to you? Oh, and I love Harry's character as well. Personally, I'm more fond of him than Ron, but shh... I mean it in the way that I _love _to write about Ron and Hermione, but would rather, like you said, marry Harry (hah, it rhymes!). Anyways, have fun with this chapter.**

**Kingmaker- Oh you, one of my most faithful reviewers ever. I love Trelawney as well; she's such an interesting character. A little kooky, but she's really only trying to do good. It was tons of fun writing about her, and maybe I _will _write another Trelawney story. Someday. As in months (if not years) from now. But let's not get ahead of myself. Anyway, thanks for your splendid review. Hope you enjoy this!**

**Tweek's Panda- Oh I know, sometimes that happens, when half the screen won't load and I want to bang at it and scream. Yes, so _anyways_. Thanks for reviewing! Ahaha, I think I'd die if I was forced into a kiss, but Ron and Hermione are strong kiddos. They can handle it. And besides, you _know_ they liked it. Anyways, on with the story!**

**Viper676- Thanks for the review! Argh, I can't believe you didn't go see my cousin's movie, lol, KIDDING. It's quite alright; I'm just a random stranger on fanfiction. Anyway, I hope you have fun with this chapter; I know it was a long wait. So do read, and I hope you enjoy!**

**Okay, so please read and _review_. Please? Reviews make me very happy, and I had very few for the last chapter (which consequently made me _sad, _are you following my train of thought here?). So please review, and make the author happy. And the author will try to update someday. If you don't review, the author may just disappear and never come back to finish the story. That wasn't a threat, I promise. **

They hadn't spoken to each other in five days, four hours, and twenty-six minutes.

Not that she was counting.

Nevertheless, Hermione found herself carrying out her everyday routine with that _small _nagging feeling of apprehension and gloom. Mind you, in this case, "small" had the same meaning it did when someone said, "Voldemort is a small threat to humankind."

Being the rational girl she was, Hermione had dealt surprisingly well.

After spending the first two days locked up in the girls' dormitory, spending much of that time floundering in her confusion, Hermione had emerged, having read through several magazines targeted towards a teenage witch audience (supplied by a very helpful Ginny Weasley), and come to the conclusion that if she really wanted the boy, she must pursue him in every way possible!

Unfortunately, she just wasn't that kind of girl.

So instead, she resigned herself to her studies once again, as during her two-day stay in the dormitory, she had only been able to _barely_ finish her homework in time. And _that_ was absolutely shameful.

Who said that those magazines had the only right answer?

Why couldn't she win Ron over with her intelligence, her courage, and her assiduity when doing schoolwork?

She groaned to herself.

_Who am I kidding?_

She couldn't help but notice that Ron had avoided her at every turn, she couldn't help but notice how he abruptly stood up and left every time she entered a room, and she couldn't help but notice how when he did glance her way (which was rare), he had an unreadable, almost _solemn_ expression on his face.

And she couldn't help but admit that her grades were suffering from it.

_I should've known,_ she sighed to herself, lowering her eyes as she picked at her food at dinner. _Ron doesn't like me; not like that, anyway._

Had she ventured a glance at Ron, she would've noticed that he wasn't eating much either.

Beside her, Harry ate ravenously, barely pausing between bites to spurt out with overly cheerful conversation, an obvious attempt to ease the awkward tension. She appreciated it, she really did. In fact, as he carried on animatedly about the horrors of his latest run-in with Filch, she even giggled, despite her attempt to frown disapprovingly.

"You really shouldn't be wandering the halls after curfew, Harry," she tried to reproach him, but the smile that tugged at the corners of her lips gave her away.

Harry merely grinned at her, knowing fully well that she was rather lenient when it came to his midnight ramblings. "Oh 'Mione," he teased, raising an eyebrow at her small smile, "You've broken the rules a few times yourself, haven't you?"

She huffed, blushing in embarrassment. "Well," she argued, "You're the one who _always_ convinces me to break those rules. Honestly, Harry. You're such a terrible influence."

At this he chuckled, taking no offense at her words. "But Hermione," he replied, aggravating her further. "If it weren't for me, your whole _life_ would be spent in the library studying, and _that's_ not very exciting."

She shot a glare, turning back to her plate and stabbing at her food angrily, stuffing it into her mouth and chewing with the ferocity of a half-starved lioness. She blatantly ignored Harry when he told a half-hearted joke to bring her out of her foul mood.

It didn't work. She simply continued to ignore him, falling deep into her moody thoughts.

Harry sighed. _At least she wasn't moping around too much._ _Now for Ron._

He turned to his other best friend. Ron sat beside him, staring into his goblet of pumpkin juice with intense concentration.

Looking across the table, Harry caught Ginny Weasley's eye, and both shrugged.

They had been working together for the past few days to cheer their friends up, and it just hadn't worked.

_Honestly_, Ginny's seemed to be saying as she rolled her eyes and sighed in frustration. _Aren't they stubborn?_

Harry nodded glumly. The tense atmosphere was killing him. Not only was it extremely boring when your friends refused to talk, he was also becoming incredibly frustrated with the two. _Why don't they just admit that they both fancy each other, and get together already?_

Ginny Weasley regarded her brother and his object of affection with a sigh. They were so hopeless, those two. They had avoided each other for the past week, both blushing madly whenever they happened to be in the same room. Really, it was quite obvious. Apparently, both Hermione and Ron were completely ignorant, especially when it came to romance.

_Poor Harry._

She couldn't help but feel a pang of pity for the boy.

I mean, how would she feel if her best friends suddenly stopped talking to anyone and left her alone to talk to herself?

Not that Harry would talk to himself.

But still, he had to have been pretty lonely.

I mean, she should know firsthand what it was like when Ron got into arguments! He was an absolute git, if you asked her. But of course, the fact remained that this was not an argument.

_This was_, and she smirked at the thought, _a lover's spat. _

Purposefully, Harry stood up, motioning for Ginny to follow him.

"Well," he announced loudly, with a quite audible sigh, "Since no one really wants to hear or talk to me at _all_, I'm going to go practice some quidditch. Ginny, will you come with me?"

"Of course, Harry," she replied, just as loudly, grinning widely as she tried not to giggle. "I wonder if a certain brother of mine who happens to be an absolute quidditch fanatic would care to come as well?"

Silence.

Harry and Ginny stared at Ron in disbelief as he continued to pick at his food, staring quite intently at a large lump of mashed potatoes. Apparently, he hadn't heard a word.

The rest of the Gryffindor table shrugged their shoulders sympathetically, all aware of the recent tension between Ron and Hermione.

Ginny turned to look at Harry, mouth agape. "He must be completely _deaf!_" she whispered in awe.

He smiled grimly in return. "Either that, or just completely in love."

The Gryffindors at the table nodded wisely in assent, but Ron and Hermione stayed seated, both still lost in their thoughts.

Ginny looked at them and raised an eyebrow.

How in the world could you stare that long at a plate of potatoes? I mean, Hermione's certainly one to pursue mundane subjects, but honestly!

Harry, equally flabbergasted by how strange his friends were behaving, simply shook his head at her. "So," he said, after some time, "Ready to go?"

She nodded, and together, they walked out of the Great Hall.

All eyes at the Gryffindor table turned expectantly to Ron and Hermione, wondering when they would realize that their friends had disappeared.

"Hey," Lavender finally spoke up, poking Hermione in the arm as she feigned an innocent, truly concerned look. "Hermione, what was Charms homework again?"

Hermione looked up dully. Blinking for a moment, she sighed deeply, eyes flitting over at Ron for a second before returning to Lavender's expectant gaze. "How should I know?"

And having answered the question, she grabbed her book bag, stood up, and walked out of the Great Hall aimlessly.

Lavender turned over to Parvati, who was gaping in horror.

"Did you see that?" she shrieked, wildly glancing around at the Gryffindor students, all of whom sat open-mouthed in shock, except for one Ronald Weasley. "She didn't know the homework!"

The students stared at each other in wide-eyed shock. All they had known from their time at Hogwarts had just come crashing down on them! Their fundamental beliefs, the irrefutable truths in the world suddenly seemed so much more questionable. Hermione doing her homework weeks in advance was a fact of life, "certain as the sun rising in the east" (as a song from one Disney movie went).

All eyes slowly turned to Ron.

"They really like each other, don't they?" Dean finally said slowly, observing at his listless friend.

Parvati and Lavender nodded in assent.

"Hermione's fancied him for an _eternity_," Parvati stressed with a roll of her eyes. "She's just far too stubborn to admit it."

"And the same goes for Ron," Lavender added. "They're so silly. They're only making themselves miserable."

A contemplative silence fell over the group.

Throughout all of this, Ron had remained sitting where he was, still staring at his plate of food.

"Well," Parvati finally spoke up with an air of finality. "I think we should make them realize their feelings for each other."

Everyone grinned in approval.

"Tomorrow," Lavender commanded, a smirk playing at her lips. "All of you meet me in the Room of Requirement. We're going to start planning their..."

She paused for a moment, searching for the correct word.

"Doom?" little Dennis Creevey volunteered helpfully.

She scowled, shooting him a scathing look. "No, not their _doom_, you silly boy. Love," she sighed dramatically, "Is a beautiful thing. Far too complex for the likes of _you _anyway."

He gulped apologetically.

"We'll be planning how to _nudge_ them towards a lovely relationship, of course."

And with that said, all stood up, having finished their dinners. In a crowd, the excited group of Gryffindors left the Great Hall.

...Ron suddenly looked up, noticing for the first time that his table was now empty.

"What?" he mumbled to himself in confusion, scratching the back of his head. "Where'd everyone go?"

Meanwhile, Hermione had found herself wandering over to the owlery. Normally, had she been looking for comfort, or just clearer thoughts, as her mind was rather befuddled at the moment, she would've sought out the library. But tonight, for some reason, she didn't feel like sitting there alone at a table, surrounded by thousands of volumes of literature. She didn't feel like poring over the newest edition of _Hogwarts, A History_. All she wanted to do was to think.

And that's what had brought her here. It was a large open room, and fairly empty. But rather than the stifling silence of the library, there was the comforting ruffling of feathers and the occasional low hoot. She sighed and sat down cross-legged, leaning against the wall. Reaching over, she pulled a leather-bound book out of her book bag.

Pulling out her wand, she tapped the cover and whispered a few words, the password to her diary. Moments later, the lock on the side sprung open and when she opened the book, her familiar scrawl magically appeared on the page. Flipping to the back, she began a new entry.

_Dear Diary,_

_Well, I hate to say it, but life's been rather dull lately. I know I haven't written to you since last year when I fancied Ron like mad and used to write childish entries dedicated solely to him. And I must apologize for that, but I will tell you that I still carry you around at all times for sentimental purposes, so don't accuse me of abandoning you. But I'm going to have to tell you that even though I thought I had grown up and gained some maturity, I'm still a silly little girl._

_A silly little girl who's madly in love with one Ronald Weasley._

_Yes, that's right. It's happening again. Well, it all started with Professor Trelawney, you see..._

And here, she proceeded to write down the events of the last several days.

..._So now, dear diary, I'm not sure what I should do. Ron's not speaking to me, and it's creating a horrid tense situation that I hate. What should I do? I'm so afraid to talk to him; what if he says something about **that day**__and rejects me? _

_Oh what am I saying? I'm so confused, and I don't like it at all. This is why I usually bury myself in schoolwork and shun boys; because boys are complex, and schoolwork always makes sense! But I've found myself, inexplicably drawn to..._

The door to the owlery creaked open and her head shot up, her hand coming down the reflexively snap her diary shut. Pulling out her wand again, she tapped the cover and whispered a few words, relaxing when the lock snapped shut.

She looked over at the person who had just wandered in...

...And found herself staring at Ron.

She gasped in surprise and he looked over, not having seen her before.

"Hermione," he stated in way of greeting, his ears turning slightly red as he quickly looked away.

She blushed. "Hello Ron," she replied in a voice that was barely above a whisper, her eyes widening in surprise as she realized that their silent spell had been broken. She stood up uncertainly, brushing off her robes as she gathered everything into her book bag.

He seemed to have heard though. He looked over at her again for a moment and quickly turned back to the owls, pretending to concentrate. "I'm going to send a letter," he stated the obvious.

She nodded even though he wasn't looking in her direction. "Um," she stared at her feet awkwardly, moving towards the door uncertainly. "Well, I think I'd better go."

She was halfway to the door when he bit his lip and turned to look at her retreating figure. "No," he interjected, although he had no idea why. The conversation was awkward enough as it was. "Don't go. I need," he searched for a plausible reason. "I need your help in picking out an owl. Some of these," he waved his hands at the rows of owls, "May be incompetent, you know. And I really want this letter to be delivered, err, soon."

In all truthfulness, the letter was one that he had hastily penned to his mother, assuring her that he was alright and that he had been eating and sleeping enough.

But that was important, wasn't it?

She hesitantly walked over to stand by him, her cheeks still flushed. "Well," she cleared her throat nervously, "I think you'd better pick a larger owl. Remember the trouble you had with Pig?"

He chuckled, the awkward moment momentarily dispelled. "Oh yeah. And I've had bad experiences with old owls too."

She nodded in assent, moving over absently to stroke the feathers of one owl. "Yes, well, it's practically common sense to pick a larger, young owl," she teased lightly. "I don't think you _really_ needed my help."

He gulped, but managed to reply lightly as well. "Ah well," he shrugged with a smile, "I've just gotten used to your help, I suppose."

She turned around to look at him, a small smile playing on the corners of her lips even though she tried to narrow her eyes in disapproval. "Ronald Weasley!" she scolded with little success. "Shame on you. You really ought to do your homework sometime. You might find that you actually learn something."

He simply grinned in reply, knowing that it would only infuriate her further. And that was the exact reaction he wanted. He didn't want any of this awkward, tip-toeing around each other nonsense. He wanted it back to the way it _had_ been, back when she had nagged him constantly to finish his homework and he had teased her about being a know-it-all (which she was). "Well," he replied nonchalantly, "I don't really want to learn," he grinned cheekily as her frown deepened, "I'd much rather have you do all the work."

She stared at him for a moment, lips tightly pursed in a frown, as she stood, torn between screaming at him for being a lazy git, or hugging him for actually talking to her again.

She chose the latter.

Launching herself at him, she burrowed her face into his shoulder, surprising Ron quite a bit.

_And here I thought she was mad at me._ _Crazy women._

But he couldn't help but think that her sudden mood changes were certainly in his favor today.

He patted the back of her head awkwardly, not sure of what to do. The back of her very frizzy head, he might add. But still, it was a frizzy head that he adored. "Err..." he mumbled, not sure of what to say.

"I missed you," she stated, pulling away embarrassedly. "Sorry about that."

"Not a problem at all," he replied dazedly. "You missed me?"

She bit her lip nervously, shuffling her feet back and forth.

_Yes! Yes! Yes!_

_Now my dear, snog him silly!_

She shuddered. Her inner voice had started to sound suspiciously like Trelawney. Shoving the nagging little voice aside, she raised her eyes slowly to meet his. "Yes," she admitted, feeling a bit foolish. "I did."

His face broke out in a grin. Pulling her in for another hug, he replied happily, "Good, because I missed you too."

_Well, this is nice, _Hermione's inner-voice (aka mini-Trelawney) piped up. _The boy you're madly in love with has his arms around you. You know, this would be the opportune time to snog him silly..._

_Oh shut up,_ she replied to her inner-voice. It was actually quite a talent to be able to carry on a full conversation with herself (or mini-Trelawney) in her head.

Ron grinned at Hermione again. Now that their little awkward phase was over, he felt unbelievably relieved.

"Well," he murmured, finally pulling out a letter from his pocket and tying it to the leg of the nearest owl. "I suppose I'd better get this sent off."

Hermione stood by him, watching curiously. "And who is this important letter for?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

He scratched at his head sheepishly, the tips of his ears turning slightly red. "Um..." he mumbled, "My mum."

To his great relief, she didn't laugh. Instead, she merely shot him another happy smile and stood by while he sent the owl off.

"Well," he turned to her, in a much better mood now that his little spat (if you could call it that) with Hermione had just ended. "Let's go down to the kitchens to grab some food. I don't know about you, but I'm starving."

She looked thoughtful for a moment and he waited, cringing as he realized what he had just said. _Please God, no! Not another lecture about that SPEW business again!_

But instead (as she was in a rather pleasant mood herself) she merely, nodded in agreement. After all, she hadn't had that much to eat. "That'd be lovely."

Offering his arm gallantly, he blushed slightly as she accepted, giggling slightly. In high spirits, she even ventured to tilt her head up to peck him on the cheek.

Ron blushed again. This was turning out to be a splendid day.

As they walked out, neither noticed Colin Creevey emerge triumphantly from behind the rows of owls, his camera in hand.


	6. Setting the Stage

**Ah yay. Another chapter out. Aren't you proud of me? **

**Anyways, it's been an absolutely dismal week. Not only am I getting very little sleep (like I said, five hours if I'm lucky), but lordy, all of a sudden all this _drama_ breaks out. And for someone who's worked really hard to be well-liked and with a large circle of friends but _never_ clique-y enough to be included in spats of any kind, this is just a bit much for me. Stupid people? Yes, I think so. Because everything we did was on a professional level, and you weren't supposed to take it personally, or personally attack us for that matter. But I also think we need to meet up and work this all out as mature folks. No screaming, no yelling, just calm explanations. Is it really that hard? Just stop saying horrid things about us behind our back, okay? **

**I think I want a break from school/ extracurriculars/ everything else. I'm _tired_ of getting straight As, of taking on impossible schedules, of enthusiastically throwing myself out there to do absolutely thankless jobs. I'm tired of being the one who always has to smile, who always has to amend things, who always knows the right thing to say and the right thing to do. For once, I'd just like to be able to show that I'm _not_ always the happy/ perky/ intelligent little girl who gets by with no problems. _It's harder than you think._**

**Oh a brighter note: The other day, my newspaper friends and I were in the computer lab at school working on layout. Sometime between writing a headline and fact-checking a couple articles, one of my friends began this heated debate on Harry Potter. It was absolutely fantastic, but the best part was when it got to the point where we were reprimanded (twice) for being too loud. Her- "I think Harry's going to end up with Luna." Me- "WHAT?! No way! It's Ginny!" Across the room- "Yeah! It won't be Luna!" The older senior reporters- (scoff) "Are you guys talking about _Harry Potter?!_" Us- (unabashedly) "Of course!" Haha, good fun, that was. **

**Enough ranting, I think. Sorry you had to read that. My heartfelt thanks to my reviewers: Chantal J, BrownPryde, Amy Lampion, Rebekahek623, Tru Lys, Shinegami's Little Sis, ZayneLily, AmyChris, catherine, elvengirl9, Hermione182, Stillhopeful, Reina del Noche, and squidward. **

**viper676- Thank you! I'm so delighted that you found the characters in character... Oh and I love the mini-Trelawney as well... In fact, I just love Trelawney. Anyway, my cousin's movie was already shown in SoCal (sorry) but it's coming to DVD soon. I'll get you the facts when I can. **

**Leoking- Thank you for your encouraging words! Life is bizarre right now; but good reviews makes it better. Anyway, I'm quite excited about the progression of this story as well. Hope you like this chapter!**

**SnakeEyesHannah- Aww... your compliments towards my writing were so sweet! I feel fuzzy now... Anyways, glad you're liking the plot. Tis a bit bizarre, I know, but hopefully everyone's following it. I tried to get this chapter out as soon as possible, so I hope the wait was worth it. Enjoy!**

**Death Immortalitis- It's okay that you didn't review for the last chapter; I wasn't crossing off names of reviewers and going "Rawr, this person must die because he/she didn't review last time". Well, I'm so glad you're liking this story and sticking with it. My regular reviewers make me so happy (sniffle). So enjoy!**

**Kingmaker- Ah yes. The fun of junior year (insert big, slightly hysterical grin). Hope you're doing well in school, and yes, I know, it is kind of weird that you've a bigger reputation as a reviewer than a writer. Just for the record, I glanced at your stuff, but as I've never read _any_ LOTR book, it seemed kind of pointless to read something I knew nothing about. Your comments about my writing made me smile- THANK YOU. Yeah, actually, I love Harry, and I wanted a happy Harry in this fic, so I thought "what the heck, why not? it's my story!" Lol. Hopefully he's not ooc. WEll thank you thank you thank you for reviewing!**

**JamieBell- Haha! I love how in your review you were describing asian males playing video games in an internet cafe in Taiwan (giggles!). Oh lord, so typical. Anyways, thank you for all your "gushing"; twas very sweet of you! Oh yeah, I understand what you mean though. If I were in Hermione's place, I would _die_ of embarassment. It'd be terrible! Anyways, thank you so much for reviewing!**

**Oh your reviews make me so happy! They make my day _that_ much better; so please continue!**

"Colin, you're wonderful!" Lavender gushed as she sat on the floor of the Room of Requirement with her fellow Gryffindors.

Before them were laid out several photographs, most of them copies of one perfect picture in which Ron and Hermione were hugging. And then, of course, there was the absolutely adorable one (the girls had squealed in delight when they had seen it) where Hermione had quickly pecked Ron on the cheek.

They were better than they had ever hoped.

Colin blushed noticeably and muttered something under his breath about it being no trouble at all.

The rest of the Gryffindors ignored him and continued with their planning.

When they had entered the room that night, it had magically become filled with comfortable cushions, suspiciously similar to the ones in Trelawney's classroom.

There was a hot pink chalkboard, which produced loud sighs of appreciation from Lavender and Parvati, while the males in the room stood by with open-mouthed horror.

"It actually hurts to look at it," Dean whispered, awe tingeing his voice.

The girls paid no attention to his comment.

There were numerous love-advice books lying about, their glossy red and pink covers creating a very oppressive and squeamish atmosphere for not only the boys, but also many of the girls. Several younger girls were seen gulping loudly as they skirted around the books, watching in horror as cheesy-smiled wizards from the front covers winked suggestively at them.

The boys had a similar reaction.

Poor Neville ran from the room in horror, unable to bear the life-sized poster of Gilderoy Lockhart adorning a wall, proclaiming in large, bold letters, "THE ANSWER TO YOUR LOVE LIFE MAY BE FOUND IN A SIMPLE POTION."

Apparently, the words "love" and "potion" in the same sentence were too much for him to take.

"Anyways," Parvati clapped her hands together chirpily, completely oblivious to the discomfort of her fellow students. "Let's start brainstorming."

Picking up a lighter pink piece of chalk (so as to contrast against the horrendously bright background of the chalkboard), she smiled expectantly at the group.

Five hours later, they emerged from the room with secretive grins on their faces. Each student carried a folder of photographs from the owlery to be used at a later date. But for the time being, they had another plan.

"Remember, comrades," Lavender commanded authoritatively, "We've got to know their everyday habits, their schedules. And then we'll wreck havoc."

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"Why are they staring at us?"

Hermione turned to glance over her shoulder and noticed that indeed, her best friend was _not_ being too paranoid. There was a little group of Gryffindors that had been following them closely from behind for the past two days. Of course, they _did_ try to be secretive.

The kind of "secretive" that made Hermione snort and roll her eyes, that is.

Every time she (or Ron) would glance over their shoulders, the whole huddled group would slowly tiptoe across to the nearest wall and hide in the imaginary dark shadows.

In actuality, they were in broad daylight and looked rather silly, if you asked Hermione. Despite the fact that she was sorely tempted to casually meander over to their not-so-inconspicuous corner and let loose her temper, she merely shrugged in reply to Ron's question. "They've been following us for days," she growled lowly. "I honestly think they've gone insane."

He nodded absently, casting a quick, puzzled look over his shoulder. "They probably are. I don't know why they'd want to follow _us _around though. Maybe they're just bored."

Hermione nodded inattentively, mind mulling over the strange behavior of most of the Gryffindors for the past couple of days.

She knew for a fact that it was definitely not, despite what Ron had suggested, the fact that they were merely _bored_. Goodness gracious, if they were bored, why would they follow _her_ of all people? Why not follow Harry and Ginny- one famous and adventurous, the other vivacious and spontaneous- if you were really looking for some excitement in your life? Those two had recently become rather close friends and were often seen gallivanting about the castle together, off to do random things (which Hermione suspected was their definition of "pranks", as since they had become close friends, the Gryffindor Common Room had been bombarded with flying sparks all night, and on another occasion, the Slytherins had come down to breakfast, only to find, much to their dismay, that their robes had "GIT" stamped in large luminescent letters across the front). So why in the world was everyone following her and Ron?

For god's sake, they had even followed her into the library, and even she had to admit that was boring.

Watching someone write an essay in silence for two hours? No thanks.

"Hey Hermione?" Ron's tentative voice floated through her thoughts.

"What?" she snapped back at him, stopping momentarily.

He bit his lip, wide-eyed as he meekly pointed to the space in front of her. "Well, you were going to walk into the wall."

Oh. Right.

_There was a turn there; I certainly knew that. _

She groaned inwardly. If Ron and Harry hadn't already been absolutely _convinced_ that she was out of her mind, well, this was just more proof to add to the growing pile of evidence.

She snorted.

More like the growing landfill of evidence.

Smiling back weakly, she laughed lightly, trying to cover up her mistake. "Right... I was just trying to see if you would notice. You know, keep your reflexes sharp."

She plastered a fake smile on her face, hoping that he would believe her.

Good job, Hermione. That was, quite possibly, the most ridiculous thing you've ever said in your life.

Ron gave her a dubious look, but decided not to comment on it. "Well, on to Care of Magical Creatures, then," he simply stated, continuing onward as if nothing had happened.

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. So for now, she was still considered sane. That was certainly an improvement. And for now, she and Ron were on friendly terms again, and that was excellent.

_But you want it to be more, don't you?_

She frowned at the little insinuation from her inner-voice. Whoever said that having a conscience was a _good_ thing was sorely mistaken, she decided. That little voice in the back of her head was probably Voldemort, tired of bothering Harry.

And so of course, it made perfect sense that he would come to reside in _her_ head and torture her throughout the day with maddening thoughts about Ronald Weasley.

_I'm not Voldemort! _her inner-voice protested indignantly, _I thought the other day you were calling me "mini-Trelawney". Anyway, you're being quite stubborn, my dear. You know that deep down inside, you really want to snog the boy senseless._

Hermione blinked furiously, intent on responding to her inner-voice with a scathing remark, but stopped herself before she attracted the attention of anyone else.

It simply wouldn't do to start talking to herself again.

They reached the dungeons, and Hermione frowned again as she realized that all the Gryffindors were once again clumped together. Harry meandered over to her and Ron, giving them both relieved smiles.

"You're talking to each other again!" he stated cheerily for the fifth time that day.

Hermione scowled at him impatiently. "Oh yes, we've noticed, Harry. Come on, was it really that obvious when we weren't talking to each other?"

Harry opened his mouth for a moment, intent on retorting that yes, in fact, the two had been just as _obvious_ as a giant purple dinosaur suddenly crashing into Hogwarts and lassoing up students left and right.

But then he decided against that, opting instead to shrug at Hermione and simply give her a grin. "Well," he commented casually, turning away, "Snape'll probably have us work in pairs today, so why don't you two work together? I really wanted to work with Neville today."  
That was a lie, of course. Not that Harry didn't like Neville; rather, he considered the boy a close friend. But of course, his grades were already failing, and working with Neville had _never_ proven to be successful at all.

_They'd better appreciate this. _He walked away, glancing once over his shoulder to smirk at the confused looks on the faces of his best friends.

As expected, the students were expected that day to brew a potion in groups of two. Hermione glanced up at the blackboard to read the directions.

**Hair Growth Potion**

_2 hairs of a magical ape_

_3 tablespoons of hogsweed_

_14 grains of salt_

_2 drops of shampoo_

_Fill cauldron halfway with mineral water. Let simmer, and then drop in fourteen grains of salt. Wait until water is boiling and stir counterclockwise four times. Wait for about thirty seconds (need not be precise) and add the hogsweed, one tablespoon at a time in intervals of five seconds. Let sit for three minutes (approximately is fine) or until potion turns an oily black. Coat hairs of magical ape with the shampoo and drop those in. Stir clockwise thrice. Let cool and bottle. _

She frowned slightly. The potion was by far one of the simplest she had seen since first year. Either Snape was in a wonderfully good mood (which was unlikely, as his face seemed to be frozen in a perpetual scowl) or... She bit back a grin.

I knew it! His hairline's been receding quite a bit lately... 

Across the room, students gazed at the directions in baffled bewilderment. Neville cautiously did the first several steps with Harry's help and practically yelped in surprise when after adding the hogsweed, the potion yielded the _exact_ desired result.

Snape watched over the class distractedly, stopping (Hermione noticed with glee) ever few moments to run a hand over his oily slick hair.

Or what's left of it! 

Needless to say, the potion was a simple one, and all the students were able to finish it without problem in half the class period. To further their bafflement, at this point Snape merely told them to stay put, and that they could do what they wanted for the rest of the period as he disappeared to the back (presumably, Hermione thought, to eagerly test out one of the potions).

As soon as Snape left, Hermione sighed, resting her head on the desk as she glanced furtively at the large group of Gryffindors that had congregated on one side of the room.

What were they up to? 

She would've never guessed.

_The students sat in the Room of Requirement, cross-legged and attentive as they gazed up at the chalkboard much like young schoolchildren. Their hands folded neatly, they took in every word that the young woman before them uttered._

_"Remember," Lavender quickly scribbled out a diagram onto the hot pink chalkboard, looking strangely authoritative as she perkily grinned at her fellow classmates, hands on hips. "After we know their everyday habits, what makes them paranoid, what little things attract their attention, we're going to work on giving them hints. Little things that will serve as reminders of the time they spent together, or something. Remember, we're not interfering with fate; we're simply helping it move along faster."_

_Parvati sighed in agreement. "Oh, Professor Trelawney would be so proud of us!"_

As Hermione sat idly, twirling her quill as she listened to the excited chatter of Ron and Harry (who had approached their table and begun an animated, but hushed conversation ridiculing a certain professor), something on her parchment caught her eye, something she hadn't noticed before. There, scrawled in _her own handwriting_ was a little heart, with the initials RWHG inside.

Oh the horrors! Quickly, she scratched it out and covered the parchment with her arm; heart pounding as she glanced over to make sure that no one else had seen it. Ron, thank god, was still engaged in conversation with Harry, and those nearby were in their own conversations. Cautiously, she lifted her arm, curiously gazing upon the faint outline of a heart that she could barely make out through her vicious scribbling over it.

She hadn't... she hadn't actually written that had she? What strange things were manifesting in her mind without her even knowing it? How could she write that thoughtlessly while she took notes in a class? Did that mean... that she could have unknowingly written- or heaven forbid, SPOKEN- other self-incriminating things at other times? Frantically, she began to dig through her book bag, pulling out her notes from her other classes as she scanned the neat handwriting, looking for evidence of her little infatuation with Ron.

From across the room, Parvati Patil snickered, nudging Lavender Brown. The group of Gryffindors gazed up, their faces simultaneously breaking out in large grins as they watched Hermione flip through her notes, her expression flustered.

Things were going according to plan.


	7. Enter Miss Weasley

**_Smile like you mean it- _"Smile Like You Mean It" The Killers **

**Yay good music! Okay anyways... **

**Oy, I finally have this chapter finished! It's a little longer (aren't you proud?) but quite uneventful. But of course, an uneventful chapter serves to set up for an _eventful_ chapter, so I'm sure you'll forgive me. **

**Oh it's the weekend, and I'm terribly terribly grateful. (Sigh) This school year, I swear. My social life has completely disintergrated thanks to a wonderful thing I'd like to call SCHOOL. Hip hip hooray. Anyways, yesterday was a lovely Friday afternoon and my friends and I spent it at the library. Actually, it turned out to be quite fun, because I _love_ the main library in our city. Honestly, it's so beautiful and brand spiffin' new! Eight stories (drools), lots of glass, escalators, and elevators, wonderfully new computers, several study rooms on each floor- in short, we were in heaven. Alas, I could not just wander the library in awe; I actually had to get some work done. **

**Okay, ahem. Back to the business at hand then. Thank you so much for your wonderful reviews and to all those people who supported me when I was stressed out and slightly hysterical. I'm doing much better now, thank you (it's a three day weekend! Three days until I return to the evils of my school!) You guys are the best! Kisses!**

**Thank you to: Siriusly-0bsessed, Brown Pryde, Sabine Strohem-Moss, Rebekahek623, OExpecto PatronumO, Annmarie Aspasia, Tru Lys, Chantal J, elvengirl9, Death Immortalitis, Alexandrea, kendra is cheese, catherine, Sinful Colors, and She-Who-Snogs-Weasley-Boys. **

**SnakeEyesHannah: Aww, thank you for your sweet review! I'm glad you liked the last chapter... Anyways, there's more to come in the following chapters, and I hope you stay with this story. Your reviews always make me smile, although (snickers) I can't quite believe that you called them "Lav and Pav" either. **

**Kingmaker: Okay, so my little mini meltdown is over now, thanks! I'm happy to say that I simply don't _care_ about silly little rivalries and stuff anymore (and boys are _stupid_ anyway... no offense D). Anyways, thank you for your review. Hey! What's _wrong_ with a Barney/HP crossover, eh?! Haha, kidding. Even though I was _quite_ the Barney fan when I was four... Anyways, more fun stuff on the way!**

**AmyChris: Oh thank you for your sweet review! It made me feel so much better... I'm so glad you think my plot is original... it's always so hard to write a fluffy fic that isn't incredibly cliched. So thank you, and please read!**

**JamieBell: Haha, it's TRUE. Seniors don't know anything... psshh... A debate on Harry Potter is _so_ worth having. Anyways, hope you like this chapter... it's not an eventful one, but there's more to come in the _next_ chapter. Whoohoo. Thanks for reviewing!**

**Okay guys, thanks for all of your support. Please read, enjoy, and _review_!!!**

Oh the horrors.

Over the course of a mere two days, the mini-Trelawney in Hermione's head had become increasingly more belligerent. In fact, that aggravating, annoying little voice was piping up regularly now, gleefully cackling in its obnoxious little way about how it had _known_ all along that Hermione was really madly in love with...

_Oh Ron..._

She sighed.

_Honestly, thinking about that boy all the time..._

She brought her hands up to her cheeks, wondering if she was blushing madly. She really envied girls who weren't easily riled by their emotions. Honestly, take a look at Ginny Weasley! She was so unaffected by people teasing her...

Hermione flopped onto her bed, pulling out her diary and a quill. She had begun to write in it again, and much to her dismay, the entries had once again become filled with ramblings about a certain redheaded wizard.

And she had considered herself _mature._

With a sigh of resignation, she flipped open to a creamy white page and began to write in her neat, even handwriting.

_Dear Diary,_

_Well, I'm terribly confused again. Sometimes, Diary, I think I'm going mad. It's all the fault of that insane Divination teacher. Honestly, first she tries to teach me absolute nonsense and then she makes up some ridiculous story about how Ron and I are meant for each other._

_**I don't fancy Ron Weasley... I really don't!**_

_Oh honestly. Who am I fooling? Maybe, just maybe I rather fancy him just a little bit. But I'm certain that I'm not that deeply affected by my little crush as to subconsciously write little notes about **us** on the margin of my Potions homework. Right? _

_Anyways, besides my confusion about my feelings for Ron at the moment, there's more going on. My fellow Gryffindors have been acting rather oddly lately... Parvati and Lavender have been shooting me furtive glances from every corner. It's actually getting to be rather irksome. I do wonder what's going on? _

_Yours,_

_Hermione_

Signing her name with a flourish, Hermione closed her diary and muttered a spell to lock it. Grabbing her book bag from the floor beside her bed and shouldering it, she paused for a moment, contemplating.

It was a Saturday morning, and Ron and Harry were off practicing Quidditch... That wasn't the sort of thing she was interested in, so she'd just have to find something else to do with her time? The library, perhaps? She had a Charms essay due in two weeks, and she really wanted to get a head start with that research.

_Yes_, she decided. _I'll have a productive little morning in the library._

And so with a self-satisfied little smile, she made her way towards the door to leave the girls dormitory.

At that moment, Ginny burst into the dormitory with two other girls of her year chattering loudly. Hermione frowned to herself as she tried to remember their names (Ella? Meredith?). The girls dispersed to the other end of the room, apparently set on mingling with other girls in the room. Ginny, on the other hand, glanced about casually, wondering what to do now.

She stopped when she noticed Hermione with her book bag. "Oh Hermione," she groaned loudly, rolling her eyes. "You're not _seriously_ going to study today, are you?"

In response, Hermione frowned, biting her lip. "Well," she replied defensively, clutching her book bag closer. "I really have to start on my Charms essay... and I think I have a Transfiguration assignment due in a month or so too, and I really do want to get started on all of that..."

With a loud, exaggerated groan, Ginny launched herself at Hermione and wrenched her book bag away. Hermione squeaked in surprise and indignation as she suddenly found her book bag (with her precious books, and assignments, and oh gods her _diary_) pulled away from her and tossed rather unceremoniously under her bed. "You're not allowed to touch it," Ginny commanded sternly to a protesting Hermione. "No schoolwork today, Hermione."

Hermione looked at the floor dolefully. The strap of her book bag showed from under the bed, and she sighed sadly as she gazed at it. Her dear, faithful book bag. What had it ever done to warrant Ginny's wrath?

"You're going to spend the day with me," Ginny declared enthusiastically, plopping herself onto Hermione's bed with a grin. "We'll do random things that you generally dub as _useless_," she giggled as she mimicked Hermione with a toss of her hair, "and I promise we'll have fun. Honestly Hermione, even _you_ have to get tired of homework once in a while. It's terribly dull, you know."

Hermione bit her lip again. "But my Charms homework," she began weakly, nudging the strap of her book bag with a toe.

Ignoring Hermione's longing looks towards her book bag, Ginny promptly grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the dormitory, far too quickly for Hermione to even _think_ about grabbing her book bag.

"But, but," Hermione huffed indignantly as she was pulled into the Common Room. "I didn't even have time to check over my assignments for my other classes! And you could've at least let me grab my Charms book, and my Transfiguration work could've used a bit of work as well..."

Ginny cut her off with a roll of her eyes as she purposely walked towards the doorway. "Oh Hermione," she sighed, stepping out through the portrait hole and into the hallway, "you really need to get out more."

Tentatively following Ginny down the hall, Hermione sighed as she resigned to the fact that she probably wasn't going to get much work done this morning. Ginny skipped lightly down the hall, chattering loudly as she stopped every once in a while to make sure that Hermione had not snuck off and buried herself enthusiastically in a book somewhere.

"So, we'll visit Hagrid first," she chirped cheerily, bound

ing down the hall in spirited leaps, "because I haven't properly visited him in a while, and I'm sure you haven't either. I mean, of course-" she quickly glanced over her shoulder to assure that Hermione was still there, "-we're always in class, but then it's always talk of flobberworms or something."

Stepping outside with Ginny, Hermione breathed in the fresh air as she looked around in surprise. Now that she thought of it, she hadn't been outside in quite a while. All that dust in the library couldn't possibly be great for her health, and she was rather grateful that Ginny had dragged her outside.

Not that she would ever admit it.

Once they reached Hagrid's hut though, the girls were disappointed to find that he was nowhere to be found. Ginny advanced to one of the fenced off areas, giving an excited squeal when she found a lone unicorn there.

"It's gorgeous," she whispered in awe, cautiously patting the creature's head.

Hermione nodded in agreement as she glanced around. "I wonder where Hagrid could've gone?" she wondered aloud.

Ginny turned around to give her a mischievous grin. "_I_ know," she whispered with a wink. "Honestly Hermione," she teased, "you don't get out enough to know _anything_ that's going on, eh?"

Before Hermione could open her mouth to retort, Ginny had continued with a wave of her hand.

"Oh come on, you didn't know that Hagrid and Madame Maxime were dating?"

The look of shock on Hermione's face said that no, she had not.

"What?" she managed to choke out as she regained use of her vocal chords. "Since when?"

Ginny responded with a giggle. "Oh since _forever_. Over half a year, I'd say. I'm surprised that he never told you," she feigned a look of surprise, but her gloating little grin returned in a moment. "I _told _you that you don't get out enough."

Hermione huffed and turned red. "Oh," she tried to defend herself, "I really don't care about all the gossip at this school anyway. It's far more productive to learn about Charms and..."

Ginny rolled her eyes and gave a loud dramatic sigh of exasperation. "Oh dear," she muttered. "You're hopeless."

She tugged Hermione back inside after giving the unicorn one last pat on the head. "Well, since Hagrid isn't home, we'll have to find something else to do, won't we?"

On the way back into the castle, Hermione pressed Ginny for details about Hagrid and Madame Maxime's relationship.

"Are you serious?" she repeated for the third time.

"Yes," Ginny groaned good-naturedly. "For god's sake, Hermione, _everyone_ knows. You could even ask _Snape_ about it and he wouldn't be surprised at all."

Hermione fell into a pensive silence.

_Hagrid and Madame Maxime!_

She couldn't help but feel a bit hurt that he'd never told her.

_And Harry and Ron must have known and they never told me!_ She thought indignantly.

Those boys... she was going to strangle them when they came back from playing Quidditch.

And with this rather satisfying thought in mind, she followed Ginny back to the Gryffindor girls dormitory. Ginny ran over to her bed and pulled out clothes from the dresser beside her bed. "I need something warm," she mumbled to herself as she dug through the drawers.

Hermione tried not to wrinkle her nose disapprovingly as Ginny pulled out articles of clothing and tossed them messily onto her bed, or _heaven forbid_ onto her floor. It took all of her willpower not to reach over and neatly fold each piece of clothing.

Finally, she could take it no more. Glancing over Ginny's shoulder, she asked before she could stop herself, "You don't organize your clothing by color?"

Ginny wasn't at all embarrassed. "And you do?" she retorted, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

Hermione decided that it would be better _not_ to respond to that.

_Oh so what if I have my socks color coordinated and separated into different sections of the drawer?_

Ginny looked up, having grabbed a burgundy and gold sweater (it practically screamed Gryffindor pride) and pulling it over her head. She then proceeded to wrap a scarf around her neck and pull on a pair of matching gloved. "Now for you," she said to Hermione, marching over to Hermione's bed.

Hermione opened her mouth to say something about the terrible mess that Ginny had left on her floor and on her bed, but decided not to as she simply followed the other girl.

_Lord knows what she has planned._

Reaching over to pull open Hermione's dresser drawers, Ginny began her rummaging, much to Hermione's dismay.

_My neat, organized clothes!_ She thought in anguish as Ginny dug through the drawer with relish.

"Aha!" The redheaded girl grinned triumphantly as she pulled out a navy blue knitted sweater, scarf and gloves. "The color's a bit drab," she remarked, "but you just need to be warm."

She threw the clothes at Hermione expectantly.

As Hermione pulled the sweater over her head, she asked in a muffled voice, "What are we going to do?"

By the time she had completely pulled on all the warm clothes, Ginny was already at the door waiting.

"Why," she responded with an impish twinkle in her eye. "We're going to go flying of course."

And with that, she strode out of the room, leaving a horrified Hermione to gape at the door.

"No, no, no," she squeaked, running over to catch up with her friend once she had recovered from her shock. "You don't understand," she pleaded desperately. "I don't fly. I just don't. At all."

Ginny ignored her pleas, waving a hand dismissively. "Don't be silly," she responded as they walked outside. She turned towards the broom shed, where school brooms were kept for students to borrow. Opening the door, she paused for a moment, assessing the brooms with a small frown. "Here," she grabbed two, handing one to a still-protesting Hermione. "It'll be fun," she assured. "I promise!"

And so Hermione trudged after Ginny onto the Quidditch field, thinking all along the way about the many different ways she could die while at the mercy of a broomstick.

Once they had reached the field, Hermione looked up to find her two best friends zooming about on their broomsticks.

Harry paused on his broomstick, glancing down at the girls in surprise. "Ginny! Hermione!" he called out in greeting. "What are you doing here?"

Ginny mounted her broomstick with a grin, lifting her chin up to stare him in the eye. "What do you think?" she asked challengingly.

He rolled his eyes, chuckling at her good-naturedly. "Well, I would've expected _you_ here, but what's Hermione doing here?" He motioned towards the frizzy-haired girl clutching her broomstick worriedly.

"Oh, she's going to fly with us," Ginny grinned, earning a shriek of dissent from Hermione.

By this time, Ron had stopped flying about as well, and he regarded the girls doubtfully. "Are you sure?" he asked. "Hermione? Flying? I don't know..."

At this, Hermione huffed indignantly, looking up to glare at him. "Of course I can fly, Ron," she snapped angrily. "Don't underestimate me. I'll show you, Ronald Weasley, that I can fly just as well as you can."

And as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she realized the idiotic mistake she had just made.

_Oh drat._


	8. The Merry Band of Gryffindors

**A new chappie for my dear reviewers!**

**Omigoodness, it's _cold _and I'm typing with gloves on (skills!). Today it was absolutely pouring; I've never seen rain like that before. Of course, being Californians, during class we were all pressed against the windows watching in awe as the teachers ran out to the parking lot, waded through the knee-deep water, and moved their cars. We were honestly so amused. It was pouring _all day_. Normally, I love the rain so much, but when I'm wearing a short plaid skirt and thin sweater? Not so much. I came into chemistry completely soaked from walking from my previous class (which, unfortunately for me, was in another building) and everyone was like, "What _happened _to you?!" because I probably looked like a wet cat. Or something. But I'm really excited about the weather change. I love fall weather; I love rain! And I really really want galoshes. **

**With that said, let's go on to thank my reviewers! Many thanks to: Annmarie Aspasia, BrownPryde, kendra is cheese, AmyChris, Death Immortalitis, milky way bar, elven girl9, Chantal J, Tru Lys, and She-Who-Snogs-Weasly Boys! You guys are so darned sweet!**

**SnakeEyesHannah- Oh my goodness, I was so flattered by your long review! Thanks for all the compliments about my writing, plot, etc. I do try to please, and it's nice to know that people are enjoying it! LOL, it's perfectly fine if weird things remind you of certain fanfics, I've had it happen to me too, haha. Okay, so here's the next chapter. Thanks for sticking with me, and I really hope you enjoy this!**

**Yunara- Thanks so much for reading my story! I'm glad you're enjoying it so far, and hopefully you'll continue to read it. Hope you like this chapter!**

**Kingmaker- Pshaw, of _course_ I wouldn't recycle my _own_ plot. Oh my goodness, that'd be terrible, lol! Anyways, thanks for your review. Hmm... I don't know. I really like Harry and Ginny in this story, for some reason. Maybe it's because I'm not trying to hard to push them together and it just kind of happens... and Trelawney! I want another Trelawney chapter soon. Hope you like this chapter!**

**Siriusly-0bsessed- Oh sorry, I couldn't get a chapter out for your birthday (the day after my last chapter came out- are you KIDDING me?!), but I hope you enjoy this one anyway! It's only 8 days late or so... So HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, and thanks so much for reading!**

**Jamie Bell- Ah yes, well, Hermione on a broomstick is _never _a good thing, is it? Hmm... well yes, Hermione in this story is a strange, color coordinated socks obsessed girl, but alas, Ron loves her anyways, right? Well, hope you're enjoying this story, and thank you so much for your review!**

**JedimasterIgor- Thank you for your email review! It's so nice to get feedback, and I'm really glad you're enjoying my stories. Hopefully, you'll continuing to read them and enjoy them! Hope you like this chapter!**

**Now read and enjoy. **

Hermione mounted her broomstick tentatively, giving Harry, Ron, and Ginny a shaky smile that she hoped looked somewhat confident. "Well," she laughed nervously. "This should certainly be interesting."

Ron stared down at her rather dubiously-

_Oh so you still doubt me?!_ She thought huffily, glaring up at a confused Ron.

-While Harry and Ginny grinned down at her like Cheshire cats.

_Some friends,_ she thought miserably. _They don't even care that I'm going to fall to a bloody and painful death._

She paused to imagine what could go wrong while she flew.

_I'm going to fall down and land on a sharp rock that just happens to be sticking out of the ground, and blood will promptly rush out of the large gash on the side of my head, and I will suffer a concussion and severe blood loss._

_Or the broom could go out of control and zoom me about, flinging me this way and that as I struggle to stay on, and then when it's flying erratically over the lake, it'll drop me in and I'll be dragged down by grindylows and I'll drown to death before anyone can reach me._

_Or..._

Her morbid thoughts were interrupted by Ginny's voice.

"Err, Hermione?" she asked, and Hermione looked up to see that she was now in the air, hovering next to Harry. "Are you ever going to come up?"

Hermione bristled, looking up at Harry and Ginny's identical amused grins. Really, they had the audacity to tease her in such a frightening situation!

Shooting Ginny a sharp look, she made a mental note to tease the girl relentlessly about Harry later. So what if she was resorting to Lavender-esque actions? Even if there was nothing going on between those two, Ginny deserved to be rankled and embarrassed.

And so with this rather bitter thought in mind, Hermione took a deep breath and began to fly upwards.

_Don't look down, don't look down, just don't look down..._

She chanted to herself silently as she slowly (key word there: slowly) made her way up, gritting her teeth as she glared at the infuriatingly smiling Harry and Ginny.

"Hermione," Harry teased with a grin, "By the time you get up here, it'll be past curfew and Filch will have to come and drag you down."

Ginny burst into giggles.

Hermione shot Ginny an accusing glare. "You, you," she cried out. "How could you corrupt him? He wasn't nearly as sarcastic before he started spending time with you."

Ginny looked completely unfazed by this accusation. In fact, she burst into giggles again. "What?" she managed to squeak out. "Me? Corrupt dear Harry? Never!"

And she batted her eyelashes innocently.

Ten minutes later, an incensed Hermione finally made it up to where the others hovered. "See?" she said, holding up her chin (and trying very hard not to look down. "I told you I could do it."

"Yay Hermione!" Ginny did a victory dance on her broomstick, leaving a befuddled Hermione to wonder how in the world the girl could possibly let go of the broomstick without falling.

_Absolutely amazing,_ she thought somewhat grudgingly.

However, when the others invited her to zoom about the field, she adamantly refused. "No," she responded vehemently, despite their assurances that it was "perfectly safe". "No. I'm not going to risk my life."

And so rather reluctantly, the other three flew off together, leaving Hermione to hover in her little spot all by herself. She was still terribly afraid of heights, and it was rather difficult to sit up there without wailing for help. However, she simply clutched the handle of the broom tightly, making sure not to look down. Instead, she amused herself by watching Harry, Ginny, and Ron fly about, swooping over the field with exhilarated whoops.

In fact... it wasn't all as unbearable as she thought it would've been. Yes, she was clutching her broomstick for dear life. Yes, a million different worst-case scenarios were rushing through her head. But still...

It was nice to be outdoors.

Not that she would ever really admit it, but being up in the air like this, with the sun shining down on the grass as she watched her friends zoom about, it felt nicer than being in a dusty corner of the library with her nose stuck in some old book.

Not to mention the fact that those three-century-old tomes smelled horrible.

So, she admitted grudgingly, this was probably infinitely healthier than studying all the time.

Noticing his friend hovering all by her lonesome in the middle of the Quidditch field, Ron made his way over to where Hermione sat.

"Hey 'Mione," he greeted with a smile, stopping to hover right next to her.

She smiled back, thankful that someone had stopped by to talk to her.

Immediately, mini-Trelawney piped up.

_Ooh..._ it taunted._ Isn't this romantic!_

She tried to shut it out as she talked to Ron.

"So, what do you think of flying?" he asked, trying to maintain a straight face even though a small grin crept onto his face.

She regarded the grin with a sigh. "Oh honestly," she huffed, clutching the broom's handle tighter. "You're as bad as Ginny and Harry."

"No!" he protested, the grin spreading over his face. "I would never tease you like that." He widened his eyes innocently, the expression rather reminiscent of one Miss Ginny Weasley.

_Honestly, that family._

"Oh I'm sure," she responded sarcastically, rolling her eyes (yes, Ginny was quite a bad influence).

"Oh," he suddenly remarked, veering his broom a little closer to her.

_Ooohhh..._ mini-Trelawney cooed.

"Look!"

Her fear of looking down was forgotten as she gazed down to where he was pointing and immediately gaped. "But what? What are they doing here?"

There, marching towards the field was the whole group of Gryffindors that had been seemingly stalking her.

And the frightening thing was that they were staring right at her and Ron.

"There's a lot of them," she squeaked out, watching the procession of (dear god) at least a dozen students.

"Ah," Ron replied in a puzzled voice as he scratched his head. "Our fan group, eh?"

"What are they planning?" she wondered aloud, turning to Ron.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Want to go down and see?"

She paused for a moment, but her curiosity got the best of her. "Alright," she responded, and together, they slowly flew down, Ron patiently matching her speed. 

They landed on the Quidditch field, and Hermione let out a breath of relief as she felt the ground beneath her feet. She was safe.

But alas, had she only known that her newfound safety would not last for long.

For at that moment, the leader of the troop of Gryffindors (one Lavender Brown) marched over to her and dramatically waved her wand in the air.

"Your fate," she dramatically whispered in a very Trelawney-esque fashion.

Hermione and Ron stared, wondering what in the world she was up to.

In less than a second, they found out.

Gigantic wizarding pictures that moved, fluttering between the goal posts way up high, surrounded the Quidditch field. They were enormous, Hermione realized with horror, muggle movie screen enormous.

And they were all playing the same scene over and over and over and over...

It was the scene from the owlery. In the pictures, a shyly smiling Hermione leaned over and pecked a blushing Ron on the cheek repeatedly.

The band of merry Gryffindors quickly ran away before either Ron or Hermione recovered from the shock.

"Erm..." Ron stared at Hermione wide-eyed, his whole face bright red.

Hermione had a feeling that she had a similar look as well.

"Um..." she responded oh-so-eloquently.

They quickly turned away from each other in embarrassment.

Hermione bowed her head, trying desperately not to look up and see one of those horrible picture things.

_Oh darling, you know you love those pictures,_ mini-Trelawney taunted. _In fact, you love the boy in the pictures as well. Why don't you snog him here and now, hmm? Didn't that girl Lavender say that it was **fate**?_

_Oh sod off..._ she thought miserably, not caring at all that she was using improper language with her inner voice.

Just when she thought that she'd stand there in that unbearable awkward silence forever, she heard chuckles and a soft whoosh and realized that Harry and Ginny were coming down.

_Oh dear._

Ginny landed first, softly settling on the grass beside Hermione.

"Hello you two," she giggled, covering a hand with her mouth as she glanced around at the giant pictures still moving above the Quidditch field. "Isn't that an interesting photo! I must say, Ron," she turned to wink at her brother, "Mum will love to have those in her photo album once you two are married."

Ron and Hermione simultaneously gave startled "eeps" of horror.

Ginny continued, undeterred. "Then she can say, 'Oh, they were so deeply in love, even when they were so young!' And she can place them next to your wedding pictures- Hermione, don't give me that look; I'm sure you'll look lovely- and show them to all of the visitors! Won't that be lovely!"

By this time, Harry had landed beside Ginny and was now seemingly dying of laughter. He was doubled over listening to her speak and laughing at her comments hysterically.

Personally, Hermione wanted to smack him over the head with her Potions textbook.

She simply settled for glaring at Ginny as menacingly as she could, even though her cheeks were bright red and she was trying very hard not to dash back to the Gryffindor dormitories and bury her face in her pillow.

This experience certainly was one of the most mortifying things she'd ever been through; well, besides being forced to kiss Ron by that insane Divination professor, that is.

Oh, just the mere thought of that day made her cheeks flare up even more.

_Oh but you liked that kiss, didn't you?_

Wonderful, her inner-voice had decided to comment on her tumultuous feelings.

_You're just madly in love with the boy; admit it!_

She ignored that.

Ron, beside her, had been standing rigidly still and turning quite red. All of a sudden, he seemed to snap as his eyes flickered up to the giant pictures of him and Hermione.

"I DON'T LIKE HER AT ALL, YOU LIARS!" he screamed to no one in particular in a panic.

And then, before anyone could even register what he had said, he had darted away, running back towards the castle and out of sight.

Harry and Ginny looked at Hermione, their smiles fading slightly as they watched the frenzied redheaded boy disappear from view.

And as Hermione's mind mulled over what her best friend had just shouted, she couldn't help but wonder why she suddenly felt quite sad.


	9. The Thoughts of One Ronald Weasley

**Oh my darling reviewers, it's been a long time, I know! I'm so sorry; I've been ridiculously busy and have had no time to write. Actually, this chapter was written a LOONG time ago, and it's super short because it was meant to be one fourth of a chapter or so. However, I never had time to write the rest, so I'll post this for you now. Be patient, dear reviewers!**

**Ugh. Back to hw then. Can you believe that I have a unit's worth of chem hw, a 20 page paper, a French presentation to memorize, and an ethics project AND paper, all due tomorrow?! I'm doomed, I tell ya. **

**No time for individual thanks. Sorry guys, I'm really pressed for time right now. Thanks for being so understanding!**

Ronald Weasley couldn't sleep. It was that damnable conscience of his again, and he almost wanted to cry.

Almost, because boys didn't cry, he reminded himself. Not even when they had made the object of their affections sad. Not even when they wanted to hurl themselves off the North Tower in self-disgust. No, those tears pricking at the corner of his eyes did NOT constitute as crying.

His eyes were merely irritated.

Yes, that was it.

So as he tossed and turned in bed, he rubbed miserably at his irritated eyes, wondering how he was ever going to make it up to his best friend. Flowers? Nah, she'd only scoff and tell him that he was being utterly trite. Food perhaps? Nope, she'd go on and on about house elf labor rights. Maybe he could serenade her outside of her window, like one of those characters in utterly ridiculous romantic movies? He shuddered at the mere thought. She'd probably shut her window in horror at his yowling voice.

So Ron came to a single conclusion.

He was going to be hated by Hermione Granger for the rest of his life.

With this rather depressing thought, Ron gave a loud gasp and hiccupped into his pillow (no, he definitely didn't sob).

"Bloody hell, Ron," a bleary-eyed Harry Potter rolled over in his bed and glared at his friend. "Go to sleep. Or better yet," he added on second thought, "go talk to Hermione. Just stop blubbering, won't you?"

Ron wiped away his tears (from his irritated eyes, of course) and turned over, replying rather crankily, "I'm not crying. And I don't want to talk to Hermione. She hates me enough already."

Harry sighed.

Idiot, he thought tiredly as he glanced at the clock. 2:55. He doesn't know how much she cares at all.

"Hermione would never hate you," he remarked tiredly. "Just go talk to her. Now if you don't mind, I'm exhausted and would really like to get some sleep."

And with that, he turned over and pulled his comforter over his head, leaving no room for discussion.

Ron lay awake in bed for some time more, contemplating over what Harry had just said.

Was he lying? The suspicious side of him asked. Was Harry just saying that she'd never hate me to get me to shut up so he could sleep?

No, no of course not! The secret hopeless romantic side of him protested. This, by the way, was a side of him that he kept very well hidden. Only Ginny had ever been privy to it, and that was only because she had walked in on him bawling his eyes out while reading a heartrending romantic novel titled The Witch's One Love. However, with many bribes involved, she had finally promised to never ever tell of this event to anyone.

Hermione hates you! His inner cynic proclaimed.

Never! The hopeless romantic sobbed. She loves you! That's why she's so upset! Oh poor thing; you must go apologize to her immediately and take her into your arms!

Finally, exhausted by his strange inner battle, he pushed himself out of bed and marched out of the boys' dormitory.

Fine, the inner cynic conceded. Go apologize to her. You win, okay?

The inner hopeless romantic stuck out his tongue gleefully.

Ron shook his head. Staying up late at night was definitely bad for him.

He made his way down to the Common Room, wondering all the while why in the world he was doing so. She wouldn't be down there anyway, he reasoned. He'd just go down, and sit by the fire and sulk. Obviously, it was impossible to sleep now.

He was halfway down the stairs when he noticed a familiar frizzy haired girl sitting on the floor by the fireplace, leaning against one of the armchairs. He froze momentarily, unsure of what to do. It was too late to go back up without being noticed, but he was terrified of talking to her. After several agonizingly silent moments, he tentatively made his way down and sat beside her. She looked up in surprise but quickly turned away.

"Hi Ron," Hermione murmured softly.

"Hi," he replied rather uncomfortably.

They sat for several more minutes.

Suddenly, Ron realized with horror that she was sniffling. Hermione was actually facing away from him, sniffling as quietly as she could, her shoulders shaking slightly.

That meant one of two things: either she had suddenly fallen ill (which he highly doubted), or she was crying.

And he didn't know how to deal with a crying Hermione!

"Are you crying?" he asked incredulously.

She shook her head furiously, her voice breaking as she responded stubbornly, "No, I'm not."

"You are," he argued, craning his neck to try to see her face.

She turned away from him even more. "I'm not," she repeated.

"But you are," he continued, putting a hand on her shoulder to try to get her to face him.

"Don't!" she burst out, shaking off his hand. She stood up, turning to look at him, tears brimming in her eyes. "Just don't," she wiped her tears away angrily. "If you hate me so much, don't try and act like you care, Ronald Weasley," she hissed venomously, "because I don't want to be hurt. I don't want to be brokenhearted. Just leave me alone!"

She spun on her heels and rushed up to the girls' dormitory so quickly that Ron was left simply gaping after her.


	10. Enter Mr Potter

**Yet another chapter! Hope you enjoy guys... No time to give individualized thank yous, but I really really appreciated the reviews. REALLY. Thanks for all the support! Oh, and Merry Christmas. This is for you guys!**

Hermione sat in the library, with only the mini-Trelawney within her head for company. For once, the voice inside of her had decided not to be annoying and was being sympathetic instead.

"He's a right prat, isn't he?"

"Yes," she agreed. "Yes he is. But I miss him."

"Well, that much was obvious."

"Mmm…"

Hermione sat in contemplative silence for some time, mulling over the conversation that had just taken place inside her head. Thankfully, mini-Trelawney remained silent and let her think.

"I miss him," she suddenly gasped aloud, and quickly covered her mouth with a hand.

It suddenly became clear to her. An epiphany- and the clouds within her mind parted and the sun shown down on her. And of course, mini-Trelawney danced and cackled gleefully.

She was bloody in love with her best friend. Well, she decided. Maybe love was a bit strong. Maybe like. In like, if there was such a thing.

But never mind, because the fact of the matter was that she had a crush of all things on Ronald Weasley, that infuriating boy who never ceased to upset her, and she had to do something about it.

After all, it's not every day that one learns everything about one's secret desires.

"Goodness," she mumbled, pressing her hands to her quickly reddening cheeks. "What shall I ever do?"

And so, because she was Hermione and she was utterly flustered, she sat down and took several calming breaths.

"Come now," she slowly convinced herself. "This can't possibly be as frightening as facing a troll or fighting the Dark Lord, or seeing Lavender Brown without make-up on."

And once she was calmed down, she sat, and typical of Hermione, she pulled out several pieces of parchment.

On top of the first sheet, she wrote in small, neat letters, "How to solve the dilemma of liking one Ronald Weasley:"

Biting on the tip of the quill, she frowned and bent over the parchment, fully intent on writing a list of solutions. Just like any other homework assignment, she thought, beginning to write.

Do nothing. Hide your feelings and hope they'll disappear.

She frowned. For some reason, that option seemed highly unsatisfactory.

Skip up to the Common Room and throw yourself at him, snogging him mercilessly until he asks you out.

She had to snort at that one. Obviously, it was a product of having that mini-Trelawney in her head for far too long. She swiftly crossed it out with one smooth stroke of her quill.

Send him mysterious owl posts from a "secret admirer". Give suggestive winks whenever he opens a letter.

That one too seemed highly ineffective. For one, Ron would probably be too clueless to even notice the hints that she sent his way. And secondly, if he did notice them, he'd think her absolutely insane. And she certainly didn't want that, especially not after that earlier incident with Trelawney.

She sighed. Honestly, she had to at least find one good solution. It really shouldn't be that hard.

"Tell him," the mini-Trelawney in her head piped up. "Just tell him!"

And for once, she thought that the little voice sounded rather sane.

She quickly scribbled the suggestion down.

Just tell your feelings to Ron and ask him if he feels the same.

Suddenly, an amused voice from behind her made her jump, startled. "You know, Hermione, I rather find numbers 2 and 3 interesting. However, I'm guessing number 4 would work best."

She swirled around, cheeks red. "Harry!" she gasped, covering the parchment with her hands hastily.

He grinned down at her, giving her a smug "I know what you're up to" kind of look. "Don't be silly," he admonished. "I just read everything on there. And besides, I've known that you've fancied Ron for ages."

She frowned, still blushing from embarrassment. "Then how come I didn't?"

He smiled at her confusion. "Oh Hermione," he explained, sitting down in the chair next to her. "Sometimes it takes you a while to figure things out on your own… you know? Your emotions are sometimes the hardest things to see, even though others might be able to read them easily. I reckon it has something to do with hiding things from yourself, you know, denial and all."

"That was rather deep, Harry Potter."

And here she had thought that he only thought of Quidditch. How wrong she was.

"Ah well," he replied with a boyish grin. "I spend a lot of time at night thinking. And besides, what would people ever say if the Boy-Who-Lived didn't know what he was talking about? I have to practice for all those Daily Prophet interviews, you know."

Hermione reached over to playfully swat his shoulder. "Don't be so arrogant," she scolded, glaring at the smirk on his face. "Honestly Harry, since when did you spend so much time thinking about your emotions, anyway? Is there something I should know?" And she grinned inwardly when he coughed and turned away, turning red.

"Ah well," he muttered evasively, drumming his fingers against the desk. "You know. I think about a lot of things."

"And about people?"

"That too," he conceded, unknowingly walking right into her trap.

"Maybe a certain pretty redhead?" she asked innocently, watching him blush again.

He coughed again and avoided her eyes.

Hah, she thought. He couldn't escape her now. She sat patiently and tapped her foot, looking at him pointedly. "Well?"

Harry finally raised his eyes to meet hers and grinned sheepishly, running a hand through his messy hair, a sure sign that he was rather nervous. "Oh bloody hell, Hermione," he chuckled. "You know me too well. And just for the record, she's not just a pretty redhead. She's a gorgeous, adventurous redhead with a fantastic sense of humor."

Hermione sat for a moment in stunned silence as Harry tapped his fingers against the desk nervously. Finally, she beamed at him and leant forward to hug him. "You and Ginny," she whispered, "will be fantastic together."

"Glad you think so," he responded with a sigh of relief. "She is wonderful though, isn't she?" he asked once she had pulled away and sat still beaming at him. "She's great. She's just… whoa." And he grinned a silly, smitten grin, his eyes shining brightly.

"I think so too," Hermione nodded.

"Think she'll ever consider you know, going out with me?" he asked, looking nervous again. His eyes searched hers anxiously.

"'Course," she scoffed, waving a hand dismissively. "I'm almost certain that she adores you as well, you know. You two will make a wonderful couple."

"Do you reckon Ron will kill me?" he asked, chuckling.

"Most likely," she grinned back, laughing as she remembered how overly protective Ron was of his little sister. "But Ginny'll protect you. She's a tough girl."

"Ah yes," Harry rolled his eyes. "Of course. Because I can't protect myself and need a girl there to keep me from being throttled to death by her older brother. That's certainly courageous of me, don't you think?"

They both laughed heartily until Madame Pince sent a cold glare in their direction.

She smiled to herself as she thought of Harry and Ginny, wrecking havoc on the school as they scampered through the halls, playing pranks and flying their brooms past curfew. It was the kind of activity she would've never usually condoned, but goodness, Harry deserved a break from saving the world. Harry deserved to be happy, and Ginny made him happy. And even if they broke a few school rules along the way, that's all that mattered.

"And you?" he prodded, breaking into her thoughts. "Are you going to take your own advice on number 4 on the list, eh? Are you going to tell Ron?"

"Mm…" she fidgeted with the sleeve of her sweater. "Oh I don't know. I'm… I'm not sure if he'd take it well. I mean," she hastily explained as Harry opened his mouth in protest, "If he doesn't like me, which is probably the case anyway, it'll strain our friendship. And Harry, you don't want that, do you?"

He sat for a moment with his mouth open and she regarded him worriedly.

Finally, he burst out with, "Are you insane, Hermione? Ron's been in love with you since fourth year, he just didn't realize it!"

She bit her lip. "Really?" she asked meekly.

"Really," he responded emphatically. "Now then, since we both seem to love Weasleys, we're going to each find our redhead. Okay?"

"Okay," Hermione whispered in reply, smiling at him. She leant in and kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks for everything, Harry."

"Aww, what are friends for?" he replied, pulling her in for a hug.

After a moment, she pulled away and stood up, only to see a wide-eyed Ronald Weasley storm out of the library.


End file.
